Distressed Real Estate

For more than 40 years, Sutherland’s Real Estate Practice Group has represented lenders, borrowers, sellers, purchasers, landlords and tenants in a wide variety of distressed asset transactions. We have experience in the following:

Foreclosures: Assisting lenders and borrowers in foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and other distressed asset conveyances.
REO Assets: Representing lenders and purchasers in the purchase and sale of loans and REO assets acquired by note sales, foreclosures or deeds in lieu of foreclosure.
Tenant Bankruptcy: Representing landlords in connection with tenant bankruptcy cases and related co-tenancy issues.
Enforcement Actions: Representing lenders and borrowers in collection and enforcement actions involving the entire capital and credit stack, including troubled joint ventures and mezzanine loan defaults.
Specialized Transactions: Advising on specialized distressed asset transactions, such as hospitality and “fractured condo” deals, and strategic divestitures of underperforming assets.
Securitized Debt: Representing master servicers, special servicers and providers of debt, mezzanine and equity capital with respect to performing and non-performing securitized loans, CDOs and CLOs.
Workouts: Negotiating out-of-court consensual restructurings of debt.
Dispute Resolution: Litigating and arbitrating a variety of complex real estate disputes.
Bankruptcy Transactions: Negotiating purchase and sale transactions in the context of state insolvency proceedings and federal bankruptcy cases.

Foreclosures, Deeds in Lieu of Foreclosure and Note Purchases
Sutherland has long represented sellers and purchasers in acquiring, divesting and reorganizing distressed real estate assets. We understand and are experienced in all manners of acquiring and divesting such assets, including discounted payoffs, note purchases and sales (and subsequent acquisition of assets by enforcement of legal rights), “short sales,” purchases at foreclosure sales, purchases of property through receiverships and purchases of REO assets from foreclosing lenders.

Bank Regulatory Matters
We have considerable experience in bank regulatory actions and the liquidation of loans and real property from closed banks and other financial institutions.

Workouts, Bankruptcy and Restructuring
Sutherland attorneys regularly advise clients in connection with real estate workouts, bankruptcies and restructurings and have extensive hands-on experience with bankruptcy proceedings, state court receivership actions, foreclosures and insurance company conservatorships. Because our workout, bankruptcy and restructuring experience is embedded within our Real Estate Practice Group, we keenly understand the special real estate issues that often arise in workout and bankruptcy matters.

CMBS Arena/Special Servicers
Sutherland is one of the country’s leading firms representing special servicers and others who service CMBS loans. In our capacity as counsel to master servicers and special servicers, we handle a large volume of foreclosures, extensions, workouts and restructurings. We understand the REMIC rules and the special considerations that apply specifically to collateralized mortgage obligations.

Troubled Asset Management
Sutherland attorneys regularly represent developers and property owners in a variety of issues that arise in the current economic climate, including tenant bankruptcies and related co-tenancy issues, tenant defaults and loan-related issues such as forbearance agreements and loan restructurings.

Interdisciplinary Practice
Our experience in related practice areas enables our Real Estate Practice Group to fully represent the interests of clients dealing with distressed real estate transactions. Sutherland’s approach is interdisciplinary and includes, where appropriate, input from experienced construction, tax, bankruptcy and litigation lawyers. Our construction lawyers regularly handle liens, construction defects and other disputes that are often found in troubled real estate projects. Our tax lawyers understand the tax consequences to lenders and borrowers resulting from foreclosures, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and workout transactions, and our litigators and bankruptcy lawyers regularly represent the interests of parties in litigation and bankruptcy proceedings related to distressed real estate assets.