Jantra Van Roy, Partner
Jantra Van Roy is co-chair of the firm’s bankruptcy and business insolvency practice. She has almost three decades of experience in asset recovery litigation, bankruptcy, and out-of-court loan restructuring. Jantra has extensive motion, trial and appellate experience representing creditors such as banks, commercial mortgage lenders and loan servicers in state and federal courts to enforce commercial loans, guaranties, inter-creditor agreements, pooling and servicing agreements and loan purchase agreements.
Jantra also leads the firm’s structured finance litigation practice. She has served as lead counsel for major European and American banks in complex multi-party actions arising from products such as CDOs, SIVs, and credit default swaps.
PRACTICE AREAS
Bankruptcy – Jantra has significant experience in both structuring and contesting asset sales, pre-packaged plans, consensual plans and cramdown plans. Jantra also regularly represents secured creditors in other bankruptcy proceedings, including cash collateral disputes, yield maintenance issues, fraudulent transfer and preference claims, stay relief motions, lien priority disputes, real estate and business valuation disputes, bad faith, equitable subordination, theft of business, and breach of fiduciary duty claims. Jantra typically serves as lead trial counsel.
Workouts – Jantra is experienced in restructuring both portfolio and CMBS loans, including resolution of disputes between and among lenders and borrowers, tranches of noteholders, competing lienors, mezzanine lenders and servicers. Jantra is particularly adept at using litigation as a tool to leverage and expedite favorable loan workouts.
Structured Finance Litigation – Jantra was at the forefront of structured finance litigation arising from the 2007 financial crisis. As lead counsel for money-center European and American banks, she has litigated a multitude of disputes relating to complex structured products including CDO, CLO, CMBS and RMBS matters and disputes relating to credit default swaps and varied forms of structured investment vehicles. Jantra has represented noteholders, issuers, hedge counterparties and trustees. Jantra also has developed favorable relationships with DOJ and SEC attorneys as a result of her representation of financial institutions in governmental investigations and actions relating to CDO and CLO issuances and ratings.
Bank Defense – Jantra has vast experience in consumer loan defense litigation, having defended numerous banks, mortgage lenders, servicers and investors against individual, class and mass action claims of mortgage fraud, predatory lending, violations of consumer protection statutes, non-compliance loss mitigation options such as HAMP, and data breach claims. In the commercial loan context, Jantra has serious experience litigating claims of lender liability, breaches of complex commercial loan agreements, non-recourse carveout guaranties, yield maintenance provisions, inter-creditor agreements, loan purchase and servicing agreements.
Letters of Credit – Jantra has significant experience representing domestic and foreign banks in complex letter of credit litigation resulting in oft-cited decisions, all of which have been favorable to our clients. Representative decisions include Zalmen Reiss and Associates, Inc. v. European American Bank and Sumitomo Bank, 269, 703 NYS 2d 31 (1st Dept 2000); Blonder & Co. v. Citibank, 808 NYS 2d 214 (1st Dept 2006).
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
* Most recently, Jantra has been at the forefront of the taxi medallion crisis, representing a national bank in New York’s infamous “Taxi King” medallion bankruptcy cases as well as in the litigation against him as guarantor, effectively busting his offshore trusts, resulting in several groundbreaking favorable decisions following trials.
* Lead counsel for a special servicer in the General Growth Properties bankruptcy cases which, following a trial on a motion to dismiss, changed the bankruptcy remoteness landscape of SPE borrowers.
* Lead bankruptcy counsel for CMBS special servicer to formulate and confirm a lender-controlled pre-packaged Chapter 11 plan to satisfy over $200 million in mortgage debt secured by 891-unit multifamily high-rise property.
* Lead counsel to an institutional purchaser of a distressed CMBS loan and, in an example of bankruptcy litigation functioning to leverage a favorable deal, achieved a return exceeding 50% in seven months.
* Lead counsel to a Merrill Lynch middle market lending subsidiary achieving full loan recovery after trial by establishing that a national competitor had stolen the borrower’s trade secrets, customer and pricing information and obtaining compensatory and punitive damages.
* Representing the holders of the senior mortgage (A-1 and A-2 noteholders) following borrower's default on a $375 million mortgage loan, $75.4 million senior mezzanine loan and $32.6 million junior mezzanine loan, Jantra engaged in multi-party restructuring negotiations, including resolution of disputes among lenders and potential new investors (culminating in a global forbearance agreement pursuant to which our client ultimately received full recovery on its loan, a hefty forbearance fee, and releases from all parties).
* Lead counsel for a national bank in a wrongful swap termination dispute among three major financial institutions concerning the disposition of nearly $300 million of cash distributions arising from a hybrid CDO named 2005’s ABS CDO “Deal of the Year” for its precedent-setting structure and complexity. Our client achieved 100% of its desired result following trail.
* Lead counsel for a global financial institution in the Chapter 15 proceedings of two Bear Stearns (Cayman Islands) hedge funds.
* Lead counsel in complex yield maintenance disputes from inception through appeals.
PUBLIC SERVICE
Jantra worked closely with Thailand’s Ministry of Justice to draft the country’s comprehensive new business reorganization laws. Jantra was selected as one of only two attorneys to serve on the American Bankruptcy Institute panel with U.S. Bankruptcy Judges to deliver private lectures to the Thai Supreme Court. Jantra has also spoken at the World Bank on business reorganization issues in Thailand.
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