Duane Morris LLP

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Commercial Finance

From a $1 million unsecured loan to a complex cross-border, agented, multilender transaction in Europe to a synthetic collateralized debt obligation vehicle comprised of $1 billion notional amount of credit default swaps, Duane Morris' Commercial Finance Practice provides regional, national and international experience and representation to a broad spectrum of financial institutions, including commercial banks, insurance and finance companies, investment banks and asset managers.

The commercial financial services area is highly competitive. Whether the client is an individual or a significant corporation, our hallmark is responsive service and an insightful, creative and flexible approach to documentation.

With offices in most major U.S. markets and in London, we can provide the level of coverage and experience needed in matters for all of our clients, such as syndicated loan transactions, agented multilender transactions, multibank club transactions, mezzanine financing, individual secured and unsecured commercial loans of all sizes, real estate acquisition and construction loans and securitizations of virtually every type.

We often work closely with other Duane Morris practice groups such as corporate, municipal finance, affordable housing, real estate, reorganization and tax to assist our clients in solving problems. In addition, our lawyers frequently coordinate their work with that of our clients' government relations consultants, including our affiliate Duane Morris Government Strategies.

Service Scope and Capabilities
Our Commercial Finance Practice lawyers are experienced in assisting clients in a broad range of needs, including:

  • Acquisitions and sales of residential and commercial mortgage pools and/or servicing rights
  • Asset-based lending
  • Cash-flow lending
  • Construction and permanent loans for developers and owners of hotels, shopping centers and other commercial real estate projects
  • Due diligence review and sampling of pooled assets to evaluate quality control, compliance with applicable agency or investor standards and federal and state regulatory review
  • Financing of condominium projects and residential tract developments
  • Healthcare finance
  • HUD and other federal and state loan programs
  • Letters of credit supporting bond issues for nonprofit and for-profit companies
  • Loans to nonprofit and educational institutions
  • Loans to venture companies, including perfecting liens against intellectual property
  • Loans secured by investment property of all types
  • Loans to the communications industry, including cable television, paging and telephone companies that involve FCC licensing issues and franchising issues
  • Loans secured by aircraft and ship mortgages, floor plan financing and purchase money security interest financing
  • Mezzanine financing by insurance companies and their related entities
  • Loans to borrowers in multistate or multinational businesses
  • Loans to retail franchisees
  • Mortgage warehouse financing
  • Private equity acquisition financing
  • Public and private financing of affordable housing
  • Residential mortgage licensure and compliance review
  • Structured finance and securitizations of various types of assets, including synthetic collateralized debt obligations.
The Commercial Finance Practice Group is involved in financings of stock and commercial real estate acquisitions as well as securitizations of same. Our lawyers also document the restructuring of troubled loans and companies both in and out of bankruptcy.

The Difference Is in Our Approach
Given the nature of the commercial finance area and the time pressures typically involved, our Group approaches each client matter with appreciation for the many goals of our clients, and can provide:

  • Transaction Structuring Advice - advising the client on structures, including those that may reduce its customers' or its own costs or that may increase the likelihood of obtaining the desired rating from a rating agency
  • Document Production - producing clear, concise and complete documents within the time requirements and incorporating recent developments in relevant law and practice
  • Due Diligence Assistance - assisting the client in this process, including creating a checklist to help evaluate the potential transaction risks
  • Transaction Facilitation - assisting in the transaction and the various relationships through responsiveness and cooperation with the relevant parties and their respective counsel during documentation and the closing process
  • Project Management - providing cost-effective service by closely monitoring time and costs and adhering to the client's guidelines and deadlines
  • Post-Closing Services - rendering necessary services, including handling all security interest filings
Duane Morris lawyers in the Group typically work in teams in order to complete work quickly, as is often required in larger transactions. With an extensive library of compliant transaction documents drafted by Duane Morris lawyers, we have been able to meet tight schedules. In some cases, we have produced initial drafts on a same-day basis.

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Peer Reviews

4.9/5.0 (548 reviews)
  • Legal Knowledge

    4.9/5.0
  • Analytical Capability

    4.9/5.0
  • Judgment

    4.9/5.0
  • Communication

    4.9/5.0
  • Legal Experience

    4.9/5.0
  • 5.0/5.0 Review for Cyndie Chang by a Managing Partner on 10/05/15 in Civil Litigation

    Cyndie Chang is an outstanding individual and attorney who adheres to the highest ethical standards. She is reliable, trustworthy and a bar leader.

  • 5.0/5.0 Review for William Marchant by a Founder on 10/28/25 in Commercial Litigation

Peer reviews submitted prior to 2008 are not displayed.

Client Reviews Write a Review

Diversity

"In my discussions with Duane Morris leaders, they frequently speak about how diversity within their firm has enabled them to better serve their diverse clients. They understand that investing in diversity is a wise business decision that positions them for the marketplace of the future."

Don Liu
Senior VP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
Xerox Corporation

At Duane Morris, achieving diversity is paradoxical. By supporting and celebrating the differences of our attorneys - and the individual strengths that they bring - our firm culture expands, fostering creative solutions for our clients. But diversity at Duane Morris does not mean that we have a certain number of diverse attorneys; true diversity means that it is no longer noteworthy to see diverse lawyers leading our practice groups or managing client relationships. Ascending to positions of leadership and greater responsibility and providing the highest levels of client service is simply what is expected of all our lawyers. Diversity is another strong asset that adds to our collective abilities to meet the needs of our clients.

Our vision of diversity at Duane Morris is to realize an environment in which our lawyers' outstanding qualities are not just measured by ethnicity, race, gender and sexual orientation, but more importantly, that our lawyers are remarkable as excellent attorneys above all else. Only then can we celebrate our differences while focusing on the common pursuit of legal excellence which everyone shares at Duane Morris.

To reach this goal, Duane Morris understands that the familiar diversity strategies and policies that most law firms have are needed. Without demanding results from such policies, most law firms are bound to fail in even achieving numerical hiring and retention goals. Duane Morris has been proactive and ambitious in its efforts to improve diversity at the firm, and has set deadlines for reaching the milestones which mark our progress. To create a more diverse law firm, Duane Morris is:

  • Committed to strategically increasing our diversity levels, which is currently at 10 percent.
  • Bringing together our Diversity Committee and our Hiring and Retention Committee to raise diversity as an important factor in our hiring decisions.
  • Dedicated to improving retention by building upon our monitoring and mentoring program for all diverse associates.

Combining new initiatives with our longstanding diversity efforts, Duane Morris has seen increasingly positive results. In the Minority Law Journal's annual diversity survey of the nation's largest 260 firms, Duane Morris continued to improve its regional and national ranking, rising to number 136 of all firms surveyed. Our strides in Philadelphia are encouraging; in a city known for both the racial diversity of its population and the lack thereof in its law firms, Duane Morris is one of only two law firms to exceed the national average of minority partners at all law firms. Additionally, Duane Morris leads all national law firms based in Philadelphia in the number of Latino partners. Nearly 30 percent of all of our attorneys are women, and more than 20 percent of our partners are women.

In our approach to diversity, progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity cannot be measured in numbers alone. Duane Morris has focused our diversity initiatives on both increasing the number of diverse associates and addressing the challenges diverse attorneys face in building lasting careers and rising to senior and leadership positions. While several of our key practice groups are led by diverse partners and female partners, Duane Morris endeavors to create a culture which will foster a deep pool of such attorneys who can then develop into the firm's future leaders. Duane Morris understands that simply hiring diverse associates will not change the diversity of the firm; Duane Morris is working to mentor and retain diverse associates so that our progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity is also reflected at the highest levels of leadership within the firm.

Our progress on gender diversity has been profound. We have no glass ceilings: women hold positions of leadership at all levels of management at the firm. Women lead a number of our key practice groups, including our Energy, Immigration and International practices, and serve on the firm's Executive Committee. The success of our female attorneys at Duane Morris has not gone unnoticed. Barbara Adams was chair of the firm's Finance Practice until her appointment by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell to serve as General Counsel of the Commonwealth. In 2004, our longtime General Counsel, Gene E.K. Pratter, was approved by the United States Senate and is now a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Our efforts to improve diversity extend beyond our firm's walls. The chair of our Diversity Committee, Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr., recognized the lack of diversity in Philadelphia's legal community and formed the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. Nolan now serves as the chair of the organization, a consortium of 25 law firms and corporations that commits to employing at least one diverse first-year law student each as a summer associate. From this program, law students of diverse backgrounds gain access to what was once an exclusive legal community, and now have the opportunity to learn and develop their legal careers with experience at Philadelphia's top law firms.

In addition to our involvement in the Philadelphia area, Duane Morris has increased our presence at national conferences and events focused on diversity. We sponsor the Hispanic National Bar Association and its job fair. Duane Morris is also a longtime supporter and sponsor of the Equality Forum, a national gay and lesbian rights organization. Duane Morris continues to sponsor the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and is active in other associations of diverse attorneys including: the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley; the Charles Houston Bar Association; Cuban Bar Association; Korean American Lawyers Association; National American Indian Housing Counsel and the National Bar Association.

The challenge of improving gender, ethnic and cultural diversity at Duane Morris is an ongoing effort that has the support of the entire firm. Duane Morris has been at the vanguard in supporting gender diversity throughout the firm beginning a generation ago. Our diversity programs are leading to similar success in improving racial and national origin diversity at Duane Morris. But even as we share these examples of Duane Morris attorneys and our involvement in numerous legal events, associations and programs for diversity, our hope is that such examples will no longer be necessary to mention in the future. We hope that through our efforts, and the efforts of other law firms, these stories become so common that they are no longer the remarkable accomplishments they are today, but simply routine aspects of the legal world tomorrow.

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