Overview
Katten has a preeminent structured finance practice known for both deal execution and industry leadership. Our group brings together a broad diversity of training, background and transaction experience to help clients across a wide range of needs. The team is cohesive and consolidates in one place the tax, bankruptcy, banking, derivatives and ERISA knowledge necessary to move transactions along smoothly and efficiently.
Many of our client relationships go back years, if not decades, and much of our business takes place on a program basis, allowing us to structure staffing and fee arrangements with an eye toward consistency and value.
Market-leading structures for benchmark issuers
We are known for our representation of benchmark issuers in several asset classes, including auto finance and residential and commercial mortgage. Our issuer clients are constantly developing new financing techniques to keep pace with evolving investor requirements and new structuring methods, and they rely on us to help them structure their offerings to respond to — and take advantage of — changes in regulation, buy-side preferences, economic climate and other market factors.
First-time issuers
While our experience with benchmark issues in the largest asset classes speaks for itself, we are equally proficient in establishing programs for new entrants, often in new asset classes. In these cases, we frequently provide strategies as well as legal advice for assessing risks and guiding the management team through the entire process of launching a new program or product.
Non-finance work
Beyond term securitizations, warehouses and other forms of financing arrangements, we have broad experience within the specialty finance industry, including mergers and acquisitions, tax, bankruptcy, licensing, and general corporate matters.
Bridging US and European regulations
In addition to our national presence in the United States, our practice extends to Europe by way of our London office, allowing us to be current on European market and regulatory developments. We work to ensure that the transactions we undertake will satisfy multiple regulatory systems.
Industry leadership
Our attorneys are active in bar associations and in industry trade associations such as SFA, ELFA and CREFC. Our partners chair several association committees, and consequently we are in a position both to solicit and to shape industry legal views on topics such as risk retention, EU securitization regulations, and termination of LIBOR and "true lender," among others. These industry leadership positions have developed consensus-building skills among our group's leaders, which then become part of our broader group’s approach. Our observation is that clients — as well as the industry in general — appreciate having an "industry consensus" on unsettled issues.
Our attorneys work with clients to structure, negotiate and draft all types of structured finance transactions, including:
- Off-the-run asset classes such as municipal, renewables, single-family rental, commodities, transportation, nonperforming loans and risk retention facilities
- Specialized financing products such as reverse mortgages, non-US mortgages, future flow credits, covered bonds and securities guaranteed by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation
- Project finance deals such as ship and maritime finance; energy, port, road and airport finance; hedging instruments for crude, refiners, metals and minerals; and trade finance, including receivables purchase facilities and loans secured by receivables
- Portfolio acquisitions of consumer loans, commercial loans, and merchant cash advances in the marketplace lending sector, and credit facilities to marketplace platforms and lenders
"The attorneys from Katten handle complex and innovative structures and provide excellent counsel on a timely basis and in an exemplary manner."
Chambers Global 2024
(USA, Capital Markets: Securitisation: ABS/RMBS) survey response
Experience
Insights
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Publication | November 2024
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Event | November 21, 2024
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Publication | November 12, 2024
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News | November 7, 2024
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Publication | November 1, 2024