Financial Crisis Response Team
Bodman LLP’s multidisciplinary Financial Crisis Response Team guides the firm’s services to clients affected by the current financial market conditions. The Team includes attorneys with decades of experience in banking and financial services, commercial lending, bank regulatory, debtor-creditor rights, litigation, corporate/M&A, real estate, construction, workplace law and other areas of practice vital to our clients’ business health.
More than technical specialists, Bodman attorneys have the business savvy to guide clients through the bewildering maze of federal regulations expected to result form the government’s recovery efforts, help them identify and seize opportunities when they arise, and position them to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.
Team services
As Michigan’s number one banking and financial law services law firm according to Chambers USA, Bodman is the leading counsel to banks on any matters that relate to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, tightening credit markets, or troubled credit situations. In fact, we are working with our financial institution clients on a daily basis as they adjust their policies and practices in response to the government’s rapidly evolving actions to stabilize credit markets.
While banking and financial services is a significant part of our practice, Bodman’s 13 highly-focused practice groups offer a range of services of value to businesses in every major sector of the economy. Representative services that our Team offers include:
- Advising clients in financial distress, including issues with lenders, landlords, other creditors and customers
- Representing financial institutions on all issues concerning the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
- Advising community banks on their dealings with regulators in connection with “safety and soundness” and general insolvency matters
- Assisting clients under regulatory pressure to raise capital or sell distressed assets
- Defending lawsuits brought by borrowers who sue the loan originator and all entities up the chain for consumer credit, truth in lending, and credit collection claims
- Prosecuting and defending lawsuits brought by entities that purchased troubled assets
- Representing lenders in foreclosures, pre-bankruptcy workouts, and all types of troubled credit situations
- Representing mortgage lenders in matters involving alleged fraud or other defects in the loan origination process, alleged negligence in the servicing of the loan, and defects in the foreclosure of the mortgage
- Representing lenders in Chapter 7, 12 and 13 bankruptcy proceedings
- Representing automotive and other manufacturing clients in negotiations with troubled customers or vendors
- Representing automotive clients in responding to stop-shipment threats or attempts by suppliers to impose unilateral cost increases
- Advising automotive and other manufacturers on risk identification and proactive steps to mitigate future costs associated with troubled customers or vendors
- Advising corporate clients on compliance with the expected avalanche of new and modified federal regulations
- Acting as local counsel in all types of litigation pending in Michigan
- Representing clients in connection with purchases and sales of real estate, including conventional lender-financed transactions and seller-financed transactions under land contracts and purchase money mortgages
- Representing landlords and tenants in connection with lease negotiations, lease buyouts, enforcement and lease disputes
- Representing clients with respect to construction disputes and construction lien foreclosure-related matters
Team contacts
The Financial Crisis Response Team is composed twelve members representing the core practice areas providing services. Current Team members with their areas of expertise are:
Laurence B. Deitch (co-leader), Corporate/M&A, Automotive
Dennis J. Levasseur (co-leader), Securities and Commercial Litigation
David W. Barton, Bank Regulatory
Harvey W. Berman, Construction
Gene P. Bowen, Corporate/M&A, Automotive
Robert J. Diehl, Jr., Banking, Debtor-Creditor Rights and Bankruptcy
Amy J. Durant, Bank Regulatory
Steven J. Fishman, Workplace Law
Stephen I. Greenhalgh, Banking, Commercial Lending
Ralph E. McDowell, Banking, Debtor-Creditor Rights and Bankruptcy
Nicholas P. Scavone, Real Estate, Banking
Andrew Z. Spilkin, Real Estate, Automotive
Thomas J. Tallerico, Commercial Litigation, Automotive
Wendy L. Zabriskie, Banking, Commercial Lending
Additional Information