is an international law firm dedicated to assisting clients in a wide variety of high-yield investment transactions, from secondary loan and bankruptcy / insolvency claims trading to structured asset disposition transactions, private equity investments and debtor-in-possession financing. The people of MK&B make the extra effort to know and understand their clients' businesses. Devotion to the success of its clients' activities is an essential part of MK&B's global mission. With a fully integrated practice encompassing MK&B's offices in New York, Singapore and London, MK&B can assist clients wherever and whenever needed.
Mandel, Katz & Brosnan LLP was founded in New City, New York in 1994 and was one of the first law firms to specialize in the area of distressed debt trading. Michael Mandel, the founding partner of MK&B, wanted to establish a firm where lawyers could do sophisticated and cutting-edge work in a collegial and casual atmosphere with a profound dedication to client service. Today, MK&B has over 20 employees in its offices in Valley Cottage, New York, London and Singapore, all of them committed to these same goals.
MK&B's lawyers combine uncommon expertise with a commitment to the needs and priorities of the firm's investment bank, hedge fund and investment fund clients. MK&B's long-term working relationships with local counsel in many jurisdictions around the world and its collaborative working environment further enhance the firm's market experience and legal knowledge.
MK&B prides itself on its unique brand of lawyering - attorneys from different backgrounds with varied experiences are able to think "outside the box" to provide MK&B clients with innovative solutions and advice. MK&B's dedication to high-quality legal work, its continuing commitment to client service and the diversity of its staff, clients and experience have been, and continue to be, the foundation of the firm's success and appeal.
MK&B is dedicated to the success of its clients and their interests.
MK&B is committed to integrating its worldwide offices and its rich pool of legal expertise in a unified effort to address proactively, creatively and efficiently the needs of its clients.
MK&B continuously strives for diversity and collegiality and encourages the personal and professional growth of its attorneys and staff.
MK&B is a richly diverse law firm that is firmly committed to the ideals of equal opportunity and diversity both with respect to its professional dealings and its own internal operations. MK&B consistently pursues diversity, not only in the areas of race, ethnicity, culture, religion and sexual orientation, but also in the background experiences, both personal and professional, of every member of our team. MK&B believes that diversity promotes creativity within the firm and enhances the level of service and results for clients.
MK&B does not and will not discriminate unlawfully or victimize or harass anyone in the course of its professional dealings; it does and will comply fully with all applicable statutes and regulations with respect to non-discrimination and diversity; it does and will provide services to clients in a way that respects diversity and that complies fully with all applicable laws relating to equal opportunity and equal access; it has and will make reasonable adjustments and accommodations to ensure that disabled clients or employees are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to those who are not disabled (including, but not limited to, complying with all applicable provisions of statutes such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Equality Act in the United Kingdom in the design and layout of its offices); and it will not pass on the costs of these adjustments to disabled clients or employees.
Every applicant to and every employee of MK&B is to be treated during every step and every aspect of employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other criteria that is prohibited by law. This equal opportunity policy will apply to every phase of the hiring and employment processes, including recruitment, promotion, discipline and compensation. MK&B will not knowingly allow any of its employees to engage in any illegal discriminatory conduct towards any of its other employees. All partners and employees are bound by this policy.
In addition, as part of MK&B’s commitment to equal employment opportunity, MK&B strives to maintain a work environment that is free from harassment based on any illegal discriminatory criteria, including sexual harassment. Harassment of any type is strictly prohibited at MK&B.
The MK&B employee handbook provides extensive guidance on how complaints of illegal discriminatory conduct should be handled and the complaints procedure to be used.
MK&B’s diversity and size means that it remains small enough to monitor informally its compliance with the firm’s stated policies concerning equality of opportunity and diversity. MK&B’s employees (as well as its partnership) are a richly diverse group in and of itself, consisting of many different national origins, races and religions, gay and lesbian persons and a majority of women.
MK&B uses third-party consultants to advise the firm on updates and re-evaluations of the firm’s formal policies to insure that it does not become complacent in advancing its ideals of equal opportunity and diversity. As noted, MK&B has published an employee handbook so that all employees are aware of and have an opportunity to understand and appreciate a wide variety of firm policies and procedures, including firm policies concerning equality of opportunity and diversity.
In addition to promoting equality of opportunity and diversity in its own professional dealings, MK&B often works and will continue to work with other law firms to enhance more broadly the ideals of equality and diversity. When appropriate to advance a client’s goals, MK&B will enter into co-counsel arrangements with other qualified and competent law firms that are minority owned and/or women owned in a manner consistent with the rules of professional conduct to which MK&B and its attorneys are subject.
At the heart of MK&B's practice is its involvement in the secondary loan trading markets. The firm has its roots in secondary loan trading, and all lawyers at MK&B spend a significant portion of their time assisting clients in the purchase and sale of distressed, par and near par loans and ancillary matters. The credits involved in these transactions include both large syndicated loan facilities and bilateral loans. MK&B is a market leader in the representation of clients in secondary loan trading matters; it has been instrumental in fostering the efficient markets that now exist for secondary loan trading. The firm assists major investment banks, broker/dealers, hedge funds and other investment entities in all aspects of their secondary loan trading activities.
Attorneys at MK&B are active participants in the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) in the United States and the Loan Marketing Association (LMA) in England. MK&B attorneys have been involved in the development of the form trading documentation that these trade associations have published and that are the basis for secondary loan trading in their respective markets. Many MK&B attorneys serve on committees and working groups for the LSTA and the LMA, including task forces to encourage greater harmonization of practice between the LSTA and the LMA. In addition, MK&B has drafted for its clients proprietary trading documents for use in emerging markets and markets in which the LSTA or LMA forms are not standard. MK&B lawyers have the creativity and experience to think "outside the box" when solutions to unique issues are required. MK&B attorneys lecture frequently on a variety of topics relating to secondary loan trading and often conduct in-house training seminars for the firm's clients on the various aspects of the loan trading business.
As part of their work for clients in secondary loan trading, MK&B lawyers often perform detailed credit analyses before a client begins trading the debt of a particular company. These analyses often include projections of how a bankruptcy proceeding might develop or how a credit facility might be restructured.
Few firms have the depth and breadth of practice in secondary loan trading as does MK&B. The firm and many of its current lawyers were there in the early days of the market and have been critical players in the growth and development of the market. As issues have developed, MK&B has been a key part of the process of finding practical and workable solutions.
A natural outgrowth of the firm's secondary loan trading practice is its claims trading practice, which includes the representation of clients involved in buying and selling secured, unsecured, administrative and priority claims in bankruptcy, administration and other insolvency proceedings. MK&B has vast experience in the transfer of trade claims, unexpired lease and executory contract rejection claims and reclamation claims and other dispositions of claims in such proceedings. MK&B attorneys handle these matters in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia and have assisted clients in trading claims in many of the most prominent cases.
MK&B's claims trading practice relies not only on transactional expertise but also on thorough familiarity with the applicable laws, rules and practice in bankruptcy, administration and insolvency matters. Several MK&B lawyers have substantial bankruptcy experience, and the firm has established relationships with local counsel to assist when local knowledge is required for a transaction.
When MK&B's clients became involved in the purchase and sale of large portfolios of (often distressed or non-performing) assets, including loans (secured and unsecured) and real estate, MK&B was there to assist its clients in all aspects of these transactions. MK&B has been involved in significant portfolio transactions in Asian and European markets such as Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, the PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
MK&B lawyers represent both buyers and sellers in portfolio transactions. MK&B's work for purchasers in portfolio transactions includes assistance with due diligence analysis of the underlying assets, including coordination with and supervision of local counsel; analysis of applicable legislative and regulatory issues, including extensive analysis of borrower rights under applicable bankruptcy/insolvency law and litigation prospects; assistance in the client's analysis of valuation issues relating to timing and disposition of security and/or litigation claims; review, analysis and negotiation of bid, sale and transfer documentation; assistance in loan restructuring and loan enforcement post-sale, again including coordination with and supervision of local counsel; and assistance in processing claims against sellers under applicable asset sale and purchase agreements. When representing sellers, MK&B assists its clients in all phases of asset disposition program implementation, including program development; program implementation; legislative analysis; bid, sale and transfer documentation drafting; post-sale assistance; and related claims, litigation and dispute resolution. In many of these transactions, MK&B assists in the organization and capitalization of special-purpose entities for the participation in auctions and acquisition of assets and in the structuring and drafting of asset-backed securities issued as part of these transactions.
Many of MK&B's clients have begun pursuing alternative high-yield investments, including private equity investments, and MK&B has continued to assist them in pursuit of those opportunities. These transactions have been varied in their nature and scope. MK&B lawyers have worked with clients in making private equity investments in a variety of companies in numerous jurisdictions, in providing mezzanine and bridge financing in a variety of circumstances, in financing the purchase and resolution of portfolios of non-performing assets, in providing debtor-in-possession financing and in other similar transactions. The firm assists clients that are interested in participating in syndicated credit facilities in analyzing the facilities and their rights and obligations with respect to such facilities. MK&B's involvement in these transactions again illustrates how MK&B's practice continues to evolve and how MK&B builds upon its past successes and the experiential depth of its lawyers in responding to changing client needs.
In addition to making voluntary equity investments, many of MK&B's clients find themselves holding equity positions as a result of bankruptcy or administration reorganizations and private restructurings. MK&B lawyers regularly assist clients not only in analyzing issues arising from equity ownership but also in trading equity interests, including restricted preferred and common stock, warrants and membership interests in trusts, limited liability companies and other limited liability entities. MK&B has been involved in numerous debt/equity swaps arising from loan restructurings, including many in which the issuers of these equity interests have been located outside of the three jurisdictions in which MK&B has offices.
Particular examples of some of the high-yield investment transactions in which MK&B lawyers have been involved include MK&B's work with respect to aircraft equity interests. In addition to assisting clients in trading loans secured by commercial aircraft, MK&B has assisted clients in purchasing and selling equity interests in and equity certificates relating to commercial aircraft. MK&B also has represented clients in the actual disposition of aircraft obtained in loan default and loan workout situations, as well as in the disposition of ships seized for non-payment of mortgage loans.
This MK&B practice is headed by Lawrence Codispoti, an experienced personal and business planning lawyer. MK&B attorneys have had long-standing close business and personal relationships with the individuals at their clients with whom they work on a day-to-day basis. Many of these individuals have come to rely on the firm for advice in many areas of their personal and professional lives, and the firm wanted to continue to be able to assist these individuals with their personal planning needs. In many cases such personal planning needs arise out of the business activities with which MK&B assists them. MK&B's wealth management practice includes traditional estate planning (including preparation of wills, trusts and other dispositive instruments), exploration of various tax minimization strategies, assistance in business planning and business succession planning and estate and trust administration. In many cases, as part of a comprehensive estate plan, customized powers of attorney and health care proxies/living wills are provided in accordance with a client's individual circumstances and desires.
100 Dutch Hill Road
Suite 390
Orangeburg, New York 10962
United States
845 639 7800
25th Floor, The Shard
32 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9SG
England
+44 20 7653 5678
10 Collyer Quay
Level 40
Ocean Financial Centre
Singapore 049315
+65 6538 8845
