Practice Areas

Distressed Debt and Secondary Trading

Pifko Law’s Distressed Debt and Secondary Trading practice is dedicated to representing clients engaged in secondary market trading of commercial loans and other assets. We have extensive experience in all aspects of secondary trading, and advise buy-side clients, including hedge funds, CLOs, private equity funds, and other investment entities, in all aspects of the secondary trading markets of domestic and international par and distressed debt, private securities, bankruptcy claims, and other obligations of distressed companies. Utilizing our years of experience, we can effectively identify risks associated with a given transaction and advise on ideal and alternate settlement options.

  • We have extensive experience drafting and negotiating trade confirmations, purchase and sale agreements, participation and sub-participation agreements, proceeds letters, securities purchase agreements, rights offerings, and other related trading and financing documentation. As part of our representation, we perform due diligence on each credit agreement and related loan documentation and advise clients on trading restrictions and parameters within the credit facility. 
  • When a borrower is a Chapter 11 debtor, we monitor the docket and advise clients of issues impacting secondary loan transactions, including adequate protection orders, NOL orders, restructuring support agreements, rights offerings, and DIP financings.
  • We are proficient in working on the industry’s electronic settlement platforms, including ClearPar and Virtus.
  • Pifko Law represents clients entering into participation and sub-participation agreements for the settlement of loan transactions. We advise clients regarding key terms, such as collateral, voting rights and subsequent transfers, and draft and negotiate participation transfer agreements and related collateral documentation.
  • Pifko Law represents clients on alternative high-yield investments, including private equity investments such as notes, common stock, preferred stock, and warrants. These transactions may arise as stand-alone trades, or positions acquired following Chapter 11 reorganizations or out-of-court restructurings. 
  • As part of our equity trading practice, we regularly review certificates of incorporation, bylaws, LLC agreements, shareholder agreements, registration rights agreements, and other governing documents, and draft and negotiate securities purchase agreements, transfer agreements, stock powers, joinders, representation letters, opinion letters, and other related documentation.
  • In coordinating settlement, we liaise with transfer agents and company counsel to ensure that title to the securities has been transferred in compliance with applicable securities laws and regulations.
  • We have extensive experience assisting both sell-side and buy-side clients with trades of bankruptcy trade claims, including the purchase and sale of secured, unsecured, administrative and priority claims in bankruptcy, administration and other insolvency proceedings. Our team has served as primary claims trading counsel to one of the worlds’ largest broker dealers and has represented clients in trading claims in many prominent cases over the past two decades.
  • Our claims trading practice relies on both our transactional expertise, as well as our familiarity with the rules of bankruptcy procedure. Our team has substantive bankruptcy experience as well as relationships with peer firms and local counsel who can assist when additional resources are necessary.
  • The attorneys at Pifko Law have actively participated in the Loan Syndications and Trade Association (LSTA) committees and working groups dedicated to the development, drafting and improvement of loan trading documentation. We have longstanding relationships with professionals, colleagues and peer firms throughout the secondary trading market.  Current market challenges and trends are always top of mind, and with the benefit of our industry knowledge and expertise, we enable our clients to stay ahead of the curve.

High-Volume Agreements

— the Pifko Law Advantage

A significant part of our practice involves representing private equity firms, hedge funds, asset managers and other financial industry firms on drafting and negotiating routine agreements. We offer clients a comprehensive long-term solution to their high-volume routine agreements that might otherwise overwhelm internal legal and compliance resources, by providing top-tier counsel that is highly responsive, quick, efficient, personable, and cost-effective. Our clients have come to rely on our experienced team to significantly lower costs and free up internal resources. Over the years, Pifko Law has processed thousands of routine contracts, including:

  • Confidentiality agreements
  • Joinders
  • Back-to-backs
  • Non-reliance and release letters

Our team will work with yours to develop a detailed playbook, allowing our attorneys to quickly get up to speed and begin working autonomously, freeing up your internal resources nearly from the outset.

Same day or next business day turnaround of all documents, allowing your team to promptly begin evaluating new opportunities.

Our attorneys and paralegals stay current on market trends and have seen it all, having negotiated thousands of NDAs, joinders, B2Bs and NRLs on behalf of sophisticated and elite financial services clients. We work diligently and efficiently to ensure consistency across all documents, so that you obtain the best possible terms in each of your agreements, and we communicate directly with your internal legal and investment teams on any non-standard terms or issues that may arise.

We can provide a comprehensive summary of each negotiated NDA, allowing your internal teams to easily identify and track termination and other key provisions of each document.

While other companies and law firms staff your matters with a rotating team of junior associates or with attorneys that come and go, the dedicated Pifko Law team will stick by your side for years to come. We invest time and effort in our client relationships and take the time to learn your business from the inside out, becoming trusted and reliable advisors with institutional knowledge that can only be developed over years of representation. We have proudly worked with some of our clients for five years, ten years or more.

Our legal services are provided on a flat fee basis, at a cost that is lower than other industry service providers, and a fraction of large law firm rates.

Commercial Contracts

The attorneys at Pifko Law understand the challenges associated with negotiating commercial contracts, and work to provide solutions for each client’s specific goals and institutional sensitivities. We regularly assist in drafting and negotiating engagement letters and contracts with suppliers, customers, licensors, distributors, professional service providers, vendors and other business partners. The Pifko Law team offers a competitive outsourced solution for the negotiation of critical commercial contracts, ensuring that each contract provides both protection and a framework for success.

We can assist with: 

  • Vendor Agreements, Service Agreements, MSAs and SOWs
  • Professional Services Contracts and Engagement Letters
  • Software Licensing and other Technology Agreements 
 

Sophisticated Counsel
Determined Advocacy
Boutique Service

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