Cohen Todd Kite & Stanford’s Business Solutions Group provides creative and effective solutions for the wide spectrum of issues that businesses confront on a daily basis. Our Group brings together a diverse range of knowledge and expertise to represent businesses – from large publicly-held corporations to sole proprietorships. Clients benefit from the Group’s multi-disciplinary approach to analyzing issues, targeting strategies that achieve the client’s objectives, and then implementing those strategies efficiently. Whether the Business Solutions Group is serving a client we have represented for generations or a new family-owned enterprise, our holistic approach allows us to draw on the expertise and experience of our corporate, tax, and restructuring specialists, and where necessary or prudent, our litigation group.
A Special Focus on Middle Market and Family-Owned Businesses
Our Business Solutions attorneys have particularly extensive experience in representing middle market, privately held businesses, with special expertise in representing family-owned businesses and the family members that own them. Because we understand the unique set of challenges that owners of family-owned/operated businesses face, our attorneys are highly successful in helping clients navigate the intertwined business and family issues including, for example, succession and transition planning.
As one example, for many years our Business Solutions Group has represented a large restaurant chain operator with locations in several states. Our members have advised the company on: the acquisition and development of sites for restaurants, the acquisition of a distressed competitor’s restaurant chain, and the sale of the company’s operating units. At the same time, we have addressed the owner family’s concerns about structural issues to assure that every transaction is designed to meet the needs of the owner and the owner’s family.
Likewise, the Business Solutions Group recently represented a middle market capital goods manufacturer with both U.S. and overseas operations in a series of recapitalization and restructuring transactions that took the company from the verge of closure to its current operational success. The engagement began with our lawyers evaluating the client’s circumstances and concluding that a Chapter 11 restructuring was not prudent or warranted. Instead we advised the client in an out-of-court restructuring transaction that involved the modification and extension of the company’s senior, secured loan facility, renegotiation of the company’s sub-debt and mezzanine loan obligations, injection of new equity from investors, and a settlement with the company’s suppliers and unsecured creditors at a significantly reduced payout. Under our guidance, the restructuring transaction was successful with over $3.5 million in new equity injected and over 92% of the company’s unsecured creditors voluntarily agreeing to accept the deal. Following closure of the initial restructuring, our Business Solutions Group advised the company on subsequent take-out financing for the original senior lender. We continue to represent the company on various general corporate matters.
Expertise in Distressed Companies
In the current economic and business climate, there has been a rise in businesses experiencing distress and correspondingly, in those interested in acquiring, or investing in, those companies. Because our Business Solutions Group members include experienced bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys, we are particularly well positioned to provide representation in this area. Recent matters include representation of (1) a private equity fund specializing in value added real estate investments in multiple debt and real estate acquisitions; (2) a real estate investor in the acquisition and restructuring of shopping centers; (3) a shopping center owner/operator in workout negotiations and the subsequent foreclosure action filed by the Special Servicer in a CMBS mortgage; (4) a large construction and development company in bank workout and recapitalization transactions; and (5) the owner of a transportation and logistics company in financial restructuring.
A Diverse Range of Client Businesses and Industries
Our Group represents clients from nearly every sector of business enterprise including
Manufacturing
Healthcare
Banking
Retail
Private Equity
Investing
Private Lending
Restaurant Operation
Real Estate Development
Professional Sports
Nursing Homes
Entertainment
Marketing Services
Construction
Trucking & Logistics
Our Business Solutions Group fulfills each client’s unique needs effectively and efficiently. While we are proud of our track record and the results we achieve for our clients, we also recognize that, on occasion, a circumstance may arise where collaboration with outside experts would benefit the client. On these occasions, we do so without hesitation. In sum, we put our clients’ interests first and foremost in delivering solutions that work.
