Real Estate & Finance

In the increasingly complex world of real estate, Ater Wynne provides clients with innovative, high-quality legal advice designed to bring our clients’ broad range of real estate transactions to completion. We routinely assist clients in the areas of acquisitions and sales, development, leasing, financing, property management and construction. Our clients include public entities, private developers, national and regional retailers, shopping center owners, banks, telecommunication and cable companies, and large public-private ventures. Ater Wynne’s breadth and depth of expertise in real estate and land use law, as well as in other areas such as business, environmental, natural resources, and litigation, enables us to complete any type of real estate transaction or project effectively and efficiently.

Real Estate and Commercial Finance Practice 
In real estate and commercial lending, Ater Wynne is responsive to its clients’ needs for sophisticated, high-quality legal advice. The scope of our expertise enables us to provide narrowly focused or broad-based counsel to a variety of finance/lender clients. We have represented commercial banks, savings and loan associations, consumer finance companies, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers, pension plans, credit unions, leasing companies, asset-based lenders, syndications, and bond underwriters and issuers.

Our involvement with the lending industry and relevant trade associations keeps us current on issues of interest to the lending community, such as managing seismic risk and current developments in environmental risks to lenders. We stay constantly informed about and involved in legislative developments affecting the industry on both the federal and state level.

Ater Wynne’s expertise in commercial lending is recognized in the legal and business communities. Our firm has been actively involved in the Oregon Mortgage Bankers Association and the Financial Institutions Committee, the Debtor-Creditor Law Section, and the Real Estate and Land Use Section of the Oregon State Bar.

Firm expertise of real estate and finance includes:

• Real Estate Lending
• Commercial Lending
• Bankruptcy
• Environmental, Natural Resources and Land Use
• Litigation

Real Estate Lending 
In connection with our representation of lender clients, we negotiate loans, draft form and specialized loan documents, handle loan closings, document the sale of loans and participation interests, prepare servicing agreements, and advise on construction loan administration, including resolution of construction lien disputes and construction lien foreclosures. We also negotiate and document other financing arrangements such as lease financing, syndications and limited partnerships, and municipal bond financing. Our advice also encompasses federal and state regulatory compliance. In addition to lenders, our real estate clients include developers, sellers, purchasers, lessors, and lessees. Our projects have involved commercial shopping centers, office buildings, industrial parks, agricultural property, and all types of residential projects. We are experienced in the negotiation and preparation of all types of purchase and sale agreements, leases, options, sale and leasebacks, subdivision and condominium documentation (both residential and commercial), and federally-subsidized housing projects. The firm is approved to issue FNMA opinion letters.

We advise clients on the legal aspects of public and private contracting law, and on the preparation of all types of construction loan agreements, construction agreements, performance and completion bonds, and construction liens. Our clients include construction lenders, owners, general contractors, subcontractors and material suppliers.

Commercial Lending 
Ater Wynne represents a large number of local corporations as general counsel and provides corporate services to national companies with local subsidiaries or transactions. We have become one of the preeminent firms representing start-up high-tech companies in the Portland area, assisting these clients in organization and obtaining financing.

Our work in this area has involved properly documenting corporate actions, as well as the preparation of a wide variety of documents designed to formalize the various agreements entered into by our clients, including: financing documents, security agreements and related financing statements under the Uniform Commercial Code, agreements for the purchase and sale of assets or stock constituting part or all of an ongoing business, offering circulars, disclosure statements, and private placement memoranda required as part of corporate stock and limited partnership offerings, as well as related submissions to state and federal security regulatory authorities, and various general commercial documents and agreements, such as employment contracts, leases and shareholders’ agreements.

Bankruptcy
Our experience in creditors’ rights, business reorganization and bankruptcy covers all aspects of creditors’ rights and insolvency law, including representation of institutional lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, debtors and debtors in possession, bankruptcy trustees and receivers.

Environmental, Natural Resources and Land Use 
Ater Wynne’s environmental practice group develops strategies for lenders, investors and other businesses to avoid, limit, and manage environmental risks in the purchase and sale of real property and other assets, financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, initial and follow-on public offerings, venture capital financings, and private offerings. Our environmental attorneys work as a team with other attorneys throughout the firm to advise clients on due diligence and disclosures for state and federal securities law compliance. Ater Wynne assists owners and lenders in identifying and quantifying environmental risks, and in evaluating limitations on lender liability. Our clients include financial institutions, large commercial property owners, manufacturers, forest and agricultural products corporations, plywood and paper plants and timber, aluminum, and utility companies.

Litigation 
We are experienced in the resolution of commercial disputes at all levels of federal and state courts, administrative tribunals, land use bodies, Department of Revenue, and tax court. We routinely represent creditors in loan foreclosures, workouts, and bankruptcy proceedings.