Distressed Real Estate Litigation and Restructuring

Today’s troubled real estate market requires experienced and innovative lawyers. Hunton Andrews Kurth provides both. Our distressed real estate litigation & restructuring team handles real estate foreclosure, litigation, workouts, insolvency matters, distressed asset sales, and all related tax issues arising from troubled real estate properties of all types, particularly office buildings, industrial, multifamily, retail, hospitality and resort properties, and undeveloped land. Our clients include investors, lenders, borrowers, owners, sellers, purchasers, commercial banks, investment banks, REITs, REMICs, hedge funds, private equity funds, special purpose entities, securitization trustees and servicers, developers, and construction companies.

Hunton Andrews Kurth utilizes creative ways to structure cost-effective legal solutions that resolve distressed real property issues, no matter how ordinary or extraordinary the situation our clients face.

We develop innovative solutions to the most complicated transactional, ownership, and financial problems in distressed real estate. Our team has deep experience with complex financial instruments and transactions, mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, financial guarantees and mortgage insurance, as well as joint ventures, partnerships, limited liability companies, REITs and REMICs. Our team members are drawn from all of our US offices and from a wide range of the firm’s practices, including litigation, restructuring and insolvency, corporate and real estate, environmental law, and tax.

Workouts

Capitalizing on its close integration with the firm's expansive and highly regarded corporate and finance, asset securitization and real estate teams, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors' rights team has handled out-of-court workouts and financial restructurings of all types. Our attorneys have also played lead roles in the restructuring of large revolving asset-based loans, real estate term loans, and defaulted bond issuances, and, more recently, in workouts of more complex asset securitization and leveraged lease transactions.

Real Estate Foreclosure

Beyond our significant experience with workouts and restructurings of existing financings and projects, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Distressed Real Estate Litigation and Restructuring practice includes foreclosure on defaulted mortgage loans, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and the sale of REO properties for our mortgage lenders.

Litigation

All of the lawyers comprising Hunton Andrews Kurth’s bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors’ rights team are litigators, and as such, have substantial trial experience in nearly all types of creditors’ rights, Uniform Commercial Code, construction and other commercial litigation, including landlord-tenant matters, bank deposits and collections, bulk sales, enforcement of letters of credit, swaps, repos and other financial instruments, seizures of collateral, attachments, injunctions, mechanic's liens, garnishments, levies and Miller Act claims. In addition to the steady flow of commercial loan and securities enforcement work, the team regularly defends major institutions in loan-related litigation, including mortgage and consumer finance class actions and all manner of lender liability cases. The team also has substantial experience in the collection of large judgments, particularly when it has required the institution of piercing the corporate veil, fraudulent conveyance, receivership and similar litigation.

Bankruptcy

Chapter 11 bankruptcy work is the mainstay of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors’ rights practice. The team has represented debtors, creditors, committees and trustees in Chapter 11 cases. These include private and public debtors in the hospitals and commercial real estate industries, creditors’ committees and their chairpersons, equity security holder committees, DIP lenders, bank groups, franchisors, secured and unsecured creditors, indenture trustees, Chapter 11 trustees, as well as parties seeking to use bankruptcy as a mergers and acquisition vehicle. Hunton Andrews Kurth bankruptcy attorneys also have represented securitization trustees and certificate insurers and other credit support providers in Chapter 11 bankruptcies of seller/servicers in asset securitization transactions.

Representative Matters
Hunton Andrews Kurth attorneys have a depth of experiencing handling the following types of matters:

Workouts

• Representation of Global Lenders - Hunton Andrews Kurth has represented global lenders in numerous multi-million dollar commercial real estate workouts.
• We represented numerous secured and unsecured creditors, directors, bondholders, trustees and equity interests in Chapter 11 reorganizations, restructurings and workouts.
• We represented a hedge fund with respect to its workout and the sale of its mortgage servicing arm.
• We represented major bank in connection with workout of bank group debt and potential foreclosure on merchant power plant.
• We negotiated and documented numerous commercial and real estate loan workouts for a regional bank.

Real Estate Foreclosures

• Foreclosure of large tract of land in Fairfax County, Virginia, with a value in excess of $20,000,000.
• Deed-in-lieu of foreclosure acquisition of two malls, one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the other in Westland, Michigan, together valued in excess of $50,000,000.
• We represented secured lender in Florida state court foreclosure action and subsequent bankruptcy proceeding. Defeated debtor's proposed cramdown plan, lender liability claims, and avoidance action. Negotiated and closed advantageous settlement agreement involving acquisition of multimillion dollar apartment complex.
• We represented a major bank in connection with workout of bank group debt and potential foreclosure on merchant power plant.

Litigation

• Hunton Andrews Kurth’s litigation experience includes the defense and prosecution of preference and fraudulent conveyance avoidance actions, involuntary bankruptcy proceedings, complex commercial and contractual disputes, injunctive remedies and foreclosure proceedings, FDCPA actions, FCRA actions, TILA actions, and lender liability litigation.
• We represented various non-debtor parties in bankruptcy litigation matters including preference and fraudulent conveyance actions.
• We represented former case administrative agent in connection with $425 million fraudulent transfer litigation in Tousa bankruptcy pending in the Southern District of Florida.
• We have significant experience dealing with fraudulent conveyance and preferential transfer litigation.
• Represented various parties in litigation matters including actions and actions for receivers and declaratory and injunctive relief and for the appointment of receivers.