Practice Areas & Industries: Crowe & Dunlevy, A Professional Corporation

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Crowe & Dunlevy lawyers who focus their practice on commercial transactions are intimately familiar with a diverse and complex range of legal topics including bankruptcy and creditor's rights, taxation, corporate and securities law, real estate, and secured transactions as they impact commercial transactions. The Firm's commercial transactions lawyers are knowledgeable conciliators and facilitators who help negotiate transactions among a number of far-flung (typically multi-state and often multi-national) parties.

Services Available

With a large number of lawyers, high degree of expertise and several offices around the state, Crowe & Dunlevy is well suited to provide the variety of skills needed to assist in complex commercial transactions. The Firm has a long history of representing business clients including real estate developers, banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions in a variety of commercial matters. Types of commercial transaction services provided by Crowe & Dunlevy include the following:

Real Estate Transactions

The Firm represents owners, buyers, sellers, borrowers, lenders, lessors and lessees in single and multiple parcel real estate transactions, including land development, sales, leasing of all types including office and retail, fee mortgages, leasehold mortgages and sale/leasebacks. Our commercial transaction lawyers have extensive experience in all aspects of real estate including real estate titles and are accustomed to working with surveyors and title insurance companies to obtain the appropriate title insurance coverage for these various transactions.

Personal Property Transactions

Crowe & Dunlevy represents buyers, sellers, borrowers, lenders, lessors and lessees in all types of personal property transactions, including sales, secured loans, true leases, finance leases and leveraged leases.

Oil and Gas

Oklahoma is a major center for energy related industries, and Crowe & Dunlevy represents many clients active in oil and gas transactions. Our commercial transactions lawyers, in conjunction with the Firm's oil and gas department, understand the special needs of the energy industry and are frequently called upon to assist in sales, purchase, financing or development of oil and gas properties and to prepare or review purchase contracts, oil and gas mortgages, production payments, royalty interests, operating agreements and other types of oil and gas contracts.

Multi-State Transactions

Crowe & Dunlevy's Commercial Transactions lawyers have experience as both local and lead counsel in managing and coordinating the details inherent in transactions involving sale or financing of assets consisting of real and/or personal property located in several states.

Sale of Business

In addition to sale of specific personal property or real estate, the Firm's Commercial Transactions lawyers regularly handle the sale of an entire business entity whether as a sale of assets or sale of stock, partnership interests or other evidence of ownership of the entity itself and are familiar with the special problems, such as antitrust considerations and bulk sales laws, associated with such transactions.

Securitization

Crowe & Dunlevy has been involved in several transactions involving the recently popular financing technique of issuing of securities backed by either a lien on or ownership of an underlying pool of assets, consisting of real estate mortgages or other assets, held in the name of and managed by a trustee.

Opinions

Commercial transactions frequently require written opinions on a wide variety of issues such as enforceability of documents, usury, creation, perfection and priority of real property liens and personal property security interests and "doing business" considerations. The Firm's commercial transactions lawyers have many years of experience in preparing the forms of opinions needed to satisfy the requirements of parties to complex commercial transactions.

Documentation

Crowe & Dunlevy frequently assists in the structuring of transactions to achieve the parties' goals to the maximum extent feasible. Our commercial transactions lawyers regularly draft, review, and negotiate documents for all types of transactions including contracts of sale, deeds, bills of sale, easements, restrictive covenants, non-competition agreements, guarantees, loan agreements, participation agreements, ground leases, space leases, equipment leases, notes, note purchase agreements, trust indentures, mortgages and security agreements.

Workouts

The Firm's commercial transactions lawyers have considerable expertise in the structuring and documentation of loan workouts, modification agreements, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and the like.

Lender Liability

Crowe & Dunlevy lawyers are frequently called upon to assist clients with lender liability issues, either evaluating an existing set of facts to determine a possible cause of action or planning a course of action to avoid liability. The Firm's commercial transactions lawyers advise clients about all stages of such matters from the drafting of loan applications and commitments to loan documentation and credit administration.

Consumer Credit Law

Crowe & Dunlevy is recognized for its expertise in consumer credit law, including consumer credit sales, consumer leases, consumer loans, home equity loans, credit card debt and adjustable rate mortgages. The Firm's commercial transactions lawyers are knowledgeable in virtually all areas relating to consumer credit, including interest rates, disclosures, advertising, forms and other issues arising under the Oklahoma Consumer Credit Code, the Federal Truth in Lending Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the various related Oklahoma Department of Consumer Affairs and Federal Reserve Board regulations, such as FRB Regulations B and Z.

Financial Privacy

Our commercial transaction lawyers have experience in counseling clients with respect to the area of financial privacy and fair credit reporting, including common law theories of liability, and are familiar with the expanding body of legislation and case law in this emerging field.

Entity Formation

Crowe & Dunlevy lawyers provide expert counsel regarding the formation of and the laws and regulations governing all types of legal entities typically used in commercial transactions, including partnerships (general and limited), corporations, trusts, limited liability companies, real estate investment trusts, banks and other financial institutions.