Bodman LLP: Banking

Banking

1472 — Banking is established as a foundation of modern society as Italy forms the world’s oldest (and still operating) financial institution.

1913 — President Woodrow Wilson signs into law the Federal Reserve Act, which forms the basis of the current American banking system.

Knowledge is power. In the banking and financial services industries, knowledge separates those who falter from those who prosper. Bodman is an unparalleled source of knowledge and experience in Michigan’s complex and competitive market.

Our group’s partners have over 500 years of combined experience counseling banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, and a variety of non-depository financial institutions. As Michigan’s premier banking law firm, we have formed enduring partnerships with the area’s financial leaders. In 1933, we incorporated Manufacturers National Bank of Detroit and became its general counsel. Forty years later, we established its holding company, which merged with Comerica Incorporated in 1992. We continue to represent Comerica Incorporated and Comerica Bank today. In addition, we serve as counsel or special counsel to more than 90 financial institutions in Michigan and across the nation, including LaSalle Bank Midwest, an affiliate of ABN AMRO.

Our Services

We represent financial institutions in every aspect of the credit cycle and in all aspects of their business. As one of Michigan’s largest and most successful law firms, we can leverage our experience and resources to offer financial institutions advice across many practice areas. With access to the firm’s substantial intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, tax, environmental and real estate practices, our banking lawyers can offer financial institutions legal advice and solutions that are both sophisticated and practical.

Our Banking Practice Group offers:

Loan structure advice and documentation, review and negotiation of secured and unsecured commercial loans, industrial revenue and other tax exempt bond transactions, letters of credit, bankers acceptance and other credit facilities
Representation of financial institutions as lead bank in multi-bank credit facilities
Workout and bankruptcy services, including counseling lenders on loan structure and lender liability issues, especially those relating to the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fiduciary duties, equitable subordination and fraudulent transfer
Formation of de novo banks and bank holding companies
Advice on federal and state regulatory matters; legal analysis and updates of legislative and regulatory developments; opinions, and in-house and group seminars
Litigation, including lender liability matters
Environmental counsel on legislative and regulatory developments and compliance
Employment issues, including wrongful discharge claims
Advice on the role of banks as corporate trustees under bond indentures and other debt issues
Derivative transactions including ISDA documentation, master agreements, interest rate swaps, currency swaps and other foreign exchange transactions (FX transactions), and options

Representative Assignments

In 2006, we helped financial institutions structure, document and negotiate more than 500 lending transactions, including asset-based loans, multi-rate, multi-currency facilities, leveraged buyout and leveraged recapitalization loans.

We have represented financial institutions in out-of-court workouts and in Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings involving all types of businesses and collateral, with special expertise in matters relating to post-petition financing, lifting automatic stays and maximizing the realization of collateral value.

We have counseled many Michigan banks in their financing, acquisition and formation of de novo banks and bank holding companies.

We have documented significant real estate transactions in Michigan and nationally, including a luxury residential condominium project in Colorado, apartment complexes in Illinois and North Carolina, a 521-unit condominium project in Florida, a 179-site manufactured housing community in Pennsylvania, and commercial mortgages for a large brokerage firm in ten states.

We served as lead counsel on issues concerning the unauthorized practice of law in a series of class actions filed against several Michigan mortgage lenders challenging the charging of private mortgage insurance premiums.

We have represented financial institutions in lender liability claims resolved in favor of the financial institutions, including:

A foreclosure proceeding where the borrower and guarantors counterclaimed, alleging breach of contract, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty
A claim by a personal representative of an estate that a bank breached a loan agreement and acted unreasonably when it sold shares of stock pledged as collateral security for a loan
A claim by a borrower that a lender breached a contract, breached its fiduciary duties and committed fraud when it refused to renew a line of credit

Additional Information

Directory of Attorneys in the Banking Practice Group