Special Assets Lawyer Blog

I will be a panelist discussing "Specialized Loan Workouts" at the upcoming 4th Annual Special Assets Management Association conference to be held next week at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel. My fellow panelists are the highly capable workout professional Cyndee Herles, Senior Vice President of Comerica Bank and hotel receiver Tim Post of Amber Hotels, Inc.

Cyndee, Tim and I will be discussing various topics of current interest to workout professionals. Our panel's presentation is set for 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, 2013.

Topics of discussion will include practical tips on how to size up a problem loan, what to give counsel, how to assess a Chapter 11 filing at the outset, when to get a receiver appointed, when not to get a receiver appointed and how to work with a receiver to maximize recovery for the Bank.

If you are attending the SAMA Conference, catch my partners, Joel Berman and Barry Freeman on Thursday morning, April 18. Joel is on the always interesting "Lender Liability" panel at 8:30 a.m.. Barry is on the panel discussing the important topic, "Engagement of Financial Consultants and Advisors," starting at 11:00 a.m.

SAMA is a terrific organization dedicated to workout professionals. Meetings are held in both Northern and Southern California. If I don't see you at the SAMA Conference next week, I hope to see you at a Northern California meeting sometime this year.

Continue reading "Dick Rogan to Speak at SAMA Conference" »

As many of you may know, I was asked to help launch the Northern California chapter of the Special Assets Management Association (SAMA), and I currently serve on its Event Planning Committee. SAMA is hosting a luncheon program on "The Dos and Don'ts of Lender Liability" on March 1st at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco.

My partner, Joe Demko, is a panelist, along with other professionals with deep experience in lender liability issues.

Continue reading "The Dos and Don'ts of Lender Liability - SAMA Program in San Francisco" »

Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors are an often overlooked procedure for liquidating a company. A good way to understand ABCs is to think of them as an out of Court Chapter 7 case. Creditors - both secured and unsecured - and debtors turn to ABCs when a company (or its assets) need to be sold so the proceeds can be paid over to creditors. An ABC is an alternative to liquidation by foreclosure, receiver's sale, Section 363 sale in bankruptcy, and sale by the debtor itself.

Continue reading "It's as Easy as "ABC" -- Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors" »

Another noteworthy conference happening next week is the California Bankers Association's 44th Annual Bank Counsel Seminar from May 4-6 in Huntington Beach. Influential lenders, bank counsel, outside counsel, attorneys from bank regulatory agencies, and compliance officers will be in attendance for this three-day educational event, with seminars customized for each type of audience. I have attended and spoken at the Bank Counsel Seminar in past years. It is the premier meeting for legal issues affecting California banks.

This year, JMBM's very own Marty Orlick will be speaking on Americans with Disabilities Act compliance for financial institutions at 3pm on Thursday, May 5. Marty is a past contributor to SpecialAssetsLawyer.com and provides sensible advice to pass along to bank clients about the ADA. I suggest you take a look at his insightful presentation, which he will speak about in depth during the conference. By the way, Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP is also a featured sponsor of the seminar. Register for this conference at http://www.calbankers.com/bankcounsel2011/.

Continue reading "Learn about Legal Issues Affecting California Banks - Attend California Bankers Association's Annual Bank Counsel Seminar from May 4-6" »

Lenders, an important conference is coming up next week. Meet the Money® is a forum for lenders in the hospitality industry to meet the experts and get your questions answered about how to get the most from the current market. Meet the Money® runs from May 2-4 at the Sheraton LAX. If you haven't registered yet, do it now at www.MeetTheMoney.com. Read below for what you can expect at this year's Meet the Money.

Hospitality experts predict that 2011 will be the first year of significant growth in hotel transactions since 2007 -- will you be ready? Meet the Money® 2011 is your chance to find out how some of the most knowledgeable and successful people in the industry are preparing for the improved economic environment.

You'll get answers to your questions about the anticipated market at Meet the Money®, including:

• What are the real players doing?
• How can lenders, receivers and investors create value in this market?
• Who's doing transactions and how?
• Where are the biggest investment opportunities?
• What's the best way to work with the media?

Follow and join the conversation on Twitter using #MTM2011.

Continue reading "Special Assets Lawyer Update: Lenders, make the most out of 2011 at Meet The Money® next week" »

It seems that Spring is the time for wonderful events for I have yet another timely educational seminar to share with our general counsel readers. "How to Get to the Top and Stay There: Becoming a Leader in Your Legal Department" is part of the monthly Corporate Counsel Roundtable series which my partner, Bill Capps, hosts each month. This month, Bill, who is the chair of JMBM's Corporate Department, teams up with Beverly Weise, special guest and founder of Leadership Talent Solutions, to identify skills that are valued by senior management in General Counsel. Note also that this event is a fully accredited MCLE seminar.

The live event will take place in JMBM's Los Angeles office on March 8 at 7:30am, and we will be videoconferencing the program to our San Francisco office at Two Embarcadero Center, 5th Floor and our Orange County office, located at Three Park Plaza, 11th Floor, in Irvine. Don't hesitate to join us in the office that is most convenient to you. Of course, the seminar is complimentary and parking will be validated! To RSVP, email jh7@jmbm.com.

Continue reading ""How to Get to the Top and Stay There: Becoming a Leader In Your Legal Department" Corporate Counsel Roundtable on March 8" »

Many lenders are not very familiar with creditors' plans, which can be a useful tool to break through a logjam in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. JMBM Special Assets Team members and expert creditors' rights attorneys, Bob Kaplan and Nick De Lancie, are veterans at crafting and confirming creditor's plans in tough cases. Bob and Nick have created a seminar entitled, "Commercial Finance Roundtable: A Creditors Plan - A Way Out of the Morass of A Single Asset Real Estate Bankruptcy Case." The complimentary program is based on their 30 years of experience of representing creditors and includes recent bankruptcy court trial experience where they obtained a very successful result.

The program will take place on March 10, 2011, in our San Francisco office at Two Embarcadero Center, 5th Floor, with registration beginning at 5:00 PM and wine, cheese, and networking after the one-hour program. The seminar will also be MCLE accredited. RSVP your attendance to aluk@jmbm.com.

For more information, see the brochure by clicking the link below.

Continue reading "For Creditors with Clients Filing Chapter 11- Commercial Finance Roundtable: A Creditor's Plan - A Way Out of the Morass of a Single Asset Real Estate Bankruptcy Case" »

21st century bankruptcy laws don't always fit the bill. Often, there are better, more efficient and less costly means of reorganizing operating companies and restructuring or enforcing debt obligations. On Thursday, August 12, I will be moderating an panel of experienced workout professionals in a program entitled, "Techniques for Handling Troubled Companies Outside of Bankruptcy." The panel will use a hypothetical business in distress to illustrate how bankruptcy alternatives such as workouts, distressed sales, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors, foreclosures, and composition agreements can be used to address typical problems.

Hosted by the Turnaround Management Association of Northern California, the event will be held at the City Club in San Francisco at 155 Sansome Street, #150 from 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM. Register before the day of the event to save. To register and learn more, click here.

Joel Berman and Barry Freeman, two Special Assets Team™ partners with whom I work closely, are speaking at the Special Assets Management Association's (SAMA) first annual conference. In the current downturn it is best to have a game plan for how to tackle the flood of troubled loans that are now saturating the market. This conference will offer insight into the economy, regulatory perspectives, challenges of managing a tsunami of default loans, tricky asset valuations, creative workout and exit strategies, the navigation of the internal reporting process, and the hiring of the right professionals who service the industry. Both Joel and Barry are to speak on very timely issues aimed at these topics and you won't want to miss them.

Continue reading "Commercial Lending Lawyers Joel Berman and Barry Freeman to speak at the first annual Special Assets Management Association (SAMA) Conference" »

Yesterday my partner, Jim Butler, sent out an update (republished below) about the Meet the Money® Conference. Meet the Money® is a conference for lenders to the hospitality industry. If you have not registered yet, do it soon! The Meet the Money® Conference is the place to learn, listen and exchange ideas with a sophisticated audience to determine whether it is time to consider making loans to great properties that have been re-priced at lower, realistic values. See my last post about Meet the Money® here.

Meet the Money® is next week, May 3-5, 2010 at the Sheraton Gateway LAX hotel. Although our room block has sold out completely, the hotel has graciously extended our preferred conference room rate until April 30. There is still time to register for this "can't miss" event. We have one of the best lineups of hospitality industry leaders ever, and everyone you want to meet with will be there.

The tide has changed, and the "Game Changers" will all be at Meet the Money® -- Register Now! www.MeetTheMoney.com

Best regards,

Jim

P.S. Dress is casual, casual, casual.

Take a look at my www.HotelLawBlog.com
________________________________________
Creating legal and business solutions
for hotel owners, developers and lenders
in more than $60 billion of hotel transactions
around the globe.™

Jim Butler
Chairman, Global Hospitality Group®
Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP
1900 Avenue of the Stars, 7th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067-4308
(310) 712-8526 fax
(310) 968-4000 cell

Continue reading "Meet the Money® Premier Hotel Conference- hotel preferred conference room rate extended until April 30" »

For 20 years now, my partner Jim Butler of JMBM's Global Hospitality Group®, the premier hospitality practice in a full-service law firm, has been hosting the Meet the Money® Conference for hoteliers and lenders to the hospitality industry. This year's theme, "Unlocking the Game-changers for the Coming Recovery," focuses on the hotel industry's rebound and will feature more than 100 industry speakers and more than 25 sessions over a three-day period.

This is a critical time for institutional lenders, as opportunities (and disappointments) arise from on-going hotel workouts and foreclosures and from CMBS loans that are coming due. Client commitments preclude me from participating this year, but for those subscribers who hold outstanding loans secured by hotel properties or who are interested in hotel financing, this conference is a must. The conference will hold panels and discussions on CMBS loans as well as other timely topics such as receivership, financing and investment strategies, revenue management, repositioning, public-private partnerships, timeshare and asset management. For instance, there will be a panel discussion focused on hotel receiverships that will be quite enlightening and will bring attendees up to date on current developments.

Continue reading "Meet the Money®, the Premier Hotel Conference: May 3 to 5, 2010" »

I've given the Receivership 101 program many times, and it always generates an enthusiastic turnout. We figured our large conference room here at JMBM could handle the event, but the response was so great that we sold out almost immediately. Due to popular demand, the Bay Area Chapter of the California Receivers Forum decided to move our program, "Receivership 101" to a larger room at the Omni Hotel, in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District at the corner of California and Montgomery Streets. This is only a few blocks away from the JMBM office in Embarcadero Center.

If you haven't signed up yet, now is your chance.

To download a copy of the registration form below, click here.

Continue reading "Receivership 101 program has been moved to a larger venue to accommodate the tremendous response!!" »

Please join me at the California Bankers Association's 23rd Annual Lenders Conference on March 22nd and 23rd. I'll be presenting a practical program that I call "Illuminating the Dark Side of the Bank During Challenging Times." My program will cover many of the problems that California bankers are facing in these difficult economic times.

My program will be aimed at an experienced audience of chief lending officers, chief credit officers and loan administrators. We'll touch on issues involving bankruptcy, foreclosure, workouts and forbearance agreements.

I will be speaking on Monday, March 22nd at 1:05-2:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 23rd at 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Conference will be held at the Renaissance Esmeralda in Indian Wells, California and will run from Sunday, March 21 to Wednesday, March 24. Hope to see you there.

For more information about the Lenders Conference please visit: http://www.calbankers.com/

One of our most-viewed pages on SpecialAssetsLawyer.com is the Receivership 101 slideshow presentation. I've given this program several times, often with my long-time close friend and colleague, Bruce Cornelius. Bruce and I serve together on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Chapter of the California Receivers Forum, and given the sharp rise in the number of receiverships, the Forum has once again decided to present Receivership 101 live and in person.

This is a great program for those workout professionals who know how to use receivers and would like to stay current, as well as for those who are new to workouts and would like to learn the basics. Bruce and I have lots of amusing anecdotes and practical tips to share along the way.

Bruce and I will be giving the program on February 10, 2010, and all of you are cordially invited to join us.

To download a copy of the registration form below, click here.

Continue reading "Dick Rogan to Present Receivership 101 for California Receivers Forum" »

On September 30, 2009, I was a panelist on the Structured-Finance Asset Restructuring and Disposition webinar sponsored by the top-notch appraisal firm, Property Sciences. The webinar was attended by more than 100 special assets officers, credit officers, asset managers and loan officers. My portion of the panel presentation focused on strategic considerations that workout professionals need to understand in dealing with troubled commercial real estate loans and development projects, and the tools that are available to lenders to collect the loan, foreclose or sell the assets. If you'd like to see the PowerPoint slides that I presented during the webinar, please click the "continue reading..." link below.

Continue reading "Programs & Events: Structured-Finance Asset Restructuring and Disposition" »

From time to time, the JMBM Special Assets Team™ members make speeches, appear on panels and present webinars about topics of interest to workout professionals. These programs are a great opportunity for workout professionals to ask questions, keep up to date and to network. The Special Assets Lawyer Blog features a "Programs & Events" button that you can click at any time to find out what's happening in the near future.