Patterson Belknap’s Structured Finance Workouts and Litigation Group is a market-leading practice in the area of structured finance disputes and workouts, including RMBS, CMBS, CLOs and student loan securitizations. Over the last 15 years, we have helped our clients obtain over $7 billion in favorable outcomes via judgments, settlements and other workouts arising from structured finance transactions.

Formed as an interdisciplinary team at the very outset of the Global Financial Crisis, the group quickly became one of the go-to practices for the monoline insurance industry and institutional investors seeking redress for massive losses stemming from hundreds of RMBS transactions. As one of the few elite firms with decades of relevant experience in complex financial litigation and a deep understanding of the complex relationships between the various stakeholders in structured finance transactions, we were well positioned to advise a broad array of clients on an evolving range of complex matters in this space. 

As a result, we have been one of the most active law firms in this space over the last decade and a half. We brought more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of monoline insurers and investors alleging malfeasance against major financial institutions that served as sponsors, originators or trustees in structured finance transactions. We have also appeared in, or otherwise advised on, numerous legal proceedings involving disputes among the various parties to structured finance transactions.

Consistent with our leadership position, we have one of the largest groups of any law firm focused on structured finance disputes and workouts, with partners, counsel and associates from our litigation, creditors' rights, corporate and real estate departments collaboratively working on various aspects of these matters.

Industry Recognition

Chambers USA has recognized Patterson Belknap's Structured Finance Litigation Team, with one commenter noting that, "their work is outstanding. They have a very strong group of partners who are very committed, very knowledgeable and provide extremely good counsel and service. They also have a very strong bench of associates."

The firm is also "Highly Recommended" for Litigation - New York in Benchmark Litigation. Benchmark quoted a client as saying, "for residential mortgage-backed securities litigation, they are a go-to firm."

Market Leading Experience

We are a go-to-firm for institutional investors and other participants in structured finance transactions with diverse goals and strategies. This representation includes investigations and/or legal actions pertaining to misrepresentations in the issuance of RMBS, CMBS and student loans, negotiation with trustees, implementation of settlements, restructurings, waterfall disputes, and other advice relating to legal risks and opportunities associated with investments in structured credits.

The following are some of our group's representative matters:

• Represented numerous monoline and institutional investor clients in the negotiation and execution of loan-by-loan and global settlements aggregating more than $7 billion;
• Represented various clients in connection with the bankruptcies of sponsors and originators;
• Brought two dozen lawsuits on behalf of monoline insurers and investors against major financial institutions, involving several billion dollars in claims, including for breach of representations and warranties and, in certain cases, fraud or violations of federal or state securities laws;
• Appeared in numerous trust instructional proceedings on behalf of investors and monoline insurers involving disputes over settlements, waterfall interpretation issues and clean-up calls;
• Represented a CRE CLO and CMBS issuer in connection with various disputes;
• Represented an institutional investor in the enforcement of remedies relating to events of default that occurred in a multi-billion dollar revolving credit facility used by one of the largest mortgage servicers in the country to finance its operations;
• Represented a monoline insurer in connection with litigation with the CFPB and governance disputes involving 15 student loan securitization trusts;
• Analyzed representations and warranties, "put-back' mechanics, direction and indemnity provisions, no action clauses, waterfalls, and other key aspects of deal documents involving hundred of separate structured finance transactions, and advised clients as to the risks and opportunities associated therewith; and
• Implemented a number of servicer terminations and negotiated servicing transfers to improve collateral performance.