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Practice

Equipment Leasing + Finance

Equipment financing accounts for nearly $1 trillion in transactions annually, making skilled counsel essential as equipment costs continue to rise. For more than 50 years, our team has advised clients on a variety of domestic and cross-border equipment leasing and finance matters. Our team has a well-earned reputation for helping clients achieve their strategic objectives while simultaneously minimizing risk, whether they are an equipment lessee, lessor, lender, or involved in the debt or equity sides of a leveraged lease transaction. With extensive experience across key industries, global connections, and in-depth knowledge of financing and leasing, our team helps to enable strong outcomes for equipment procurement transactions of any size.

How We Help

  • Lease and loan negotiation and documentation
  • Form preparation and counseling on UCC, tax, and related policies and procedures
  • Large, middle, and small ticket lease transactions
  • Equipment finance agreements
  • Purchase/sale of lease portfolios
  • Manufacturing facility leases
  • Domestic and cross-border vendor lease programs
  • Remarketing arrangements
  • Bundling of equipment leases (combining leases with software licensing and service agreements)
  • TRAC, First Amendment, Fair Market Value (FMV), service contract, and synthetic leases;
  • Traditional loan financing
  • Representation of bank and commercial lessors and lenders, originators, vendor captives and lessees
  • Commercial and municipal leases.

Clients benefit from our collaborative, multidisciplinary approach, which allows us to leverage the experience of our colleagues in related practices.

Each transaction presents unique challenges, so we often partner with attorneys who focus on specific industries, such as transportation, mining, energy, health care, life sciences, real estate, construction, technology, and telecommunications. We also work with the attorneys in our financing, tax, corporate, bankruptcy, and litigation practices, enabling us to apply holistic, business-centric guidance that aims to create value and meets or exceeds our client’s objectives.

Representative Matters

  • Represented a major chemical company and its affiliate, as guarantor and lessee, respectively, in connection with a $130 million synthetic lease financing of a PET facility in Germany, which included commercial loans and the issuance of commercial paper.
  • Served as counsel to an international bank as financial underwriter of a master lease program for the financing of solar facilities for major U.S. retailers.
  • Represented equity investors in structuring wind power facility investments.
  • Served as counsel to a credit support provider in a sale and leaseback of electrical generation facilities in the United States.
  • Served as counsel to a U.S. equity investor (lessor) in a sale and leaseback of electrical generating facilities valued at more than $500 million, operated by one of the largest power suppliers in the United States.
  • Served as counsel to U.S. equity investor in a sale-leaseback of seven hydroelectric generating facilities located in Austria.
  • Served as counsel to U.S. equity investors in the leveraged lease financing of electric distribution systems to several rural electric cooperatives.
  • Served as counsel to the lessee pipeline company in the lease financing of petroleum storage tanks.
  • Represented a major U.S. bank in structuring the proposed construction loan and permanent leveraged lease financing of petrochemical tankers under time charter to a major U.S. oil company.
  • Served as counsel to a wind turbine manufacturer in creating a captive affiliate to lease and finance wind turbines.
  • Served as counsel to a solar panel manufacturer in creation of a captive affiliate to lease and finance solar energy systems.
  • Represented M-Core Credit Corporation in the negotiation of an equipment lease for a major construction project in Westchester County, New York.
  • Represented the finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with a $75 million hospital equipment vendor finance program.
  • Represented the finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with a $75 million medical furniture and equipment vendor finance program.
  • Represented the finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with its $100 million computer software vendor finance program.
  • Represented a satellite telephone provider in structuring a proposed lease of FCC spectrum.
  • Represented Main Street Bank in connection with the sale of its equipment finance assets.
  • Represented the U.S. equity investor in a lease of a foreign municipal administrative data processing system — the first transaction of its kind.
  • Represented a finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with a consumer electronic equipment vendor finance program.
  • Represented a hedge fund in its acquisition of equipment trust certificates.
  • Represented Bank of Tokyo in connection with a $35 million structured finance transaction for equipment to be constructed in Chile.
  • Represented a hedge fund in connection with a $15 million sale-leaseback transaction for equipment located in various airports in Japan.
  • Represented an equity investor in the sale of Islamic Shari’ah-compliant equipment leases.
  • Served as counsel to a U.S. equity investor in a sale-leaseback of seven hydroelectric generating facilities located in Austria.
  • Represented Bank of Tokyo in connection with a $35 million structured finance transaction for equipment to be constructed in Chile.
  • Represented a hedge fund in connection with a $15 million sale-leaseback transaction for equipment located in various airports in Japan.
  • Represented an equity investor in the sale of Islamic Shari’ah-compliant equipment leases.
  • Served as counsel to a U.S. equity investor in a sale-leaseback of seven hydroelectric generating facilities located in Austria.
  • Served as counsel to U.S. equity investors in a series of financing transactions involving wastewater collection systems operated by municipalities in Belgium.
  • Served as counsel to the U.S. equity investors in a cross-border sale and leaseback transaction on ticketing and passenger information systems related to high-speed passenger trains for the French national railway.
  • Served as counsel to the U.S. equity investor in a sale-leaseback of highway toll road information and fare collection systems located in South Korea.
  • Served as counsel to the U.S. equity investors in numerous cross-border sale-leaseback transactions involving passenger rolling stock operated by national and municipal railways and transit agencies in Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong.
  • Represented the equity investors in a series of OFSC cross-border sale-leasebacks of commercial Boeing aircraft for carriers in Australia and Hong Kong .
  • Served as counsel to the lessee, a French mobile telecommunications network operator, in a multiple-tranche U.S. cross-border lease of the lessee’s entire $850 million network.
  • Served as counsel to a major chemical company and its affiliate, as guarantor and lessee, respectively, in connection with the refinancing of a $79 million synthetic lease financing of an ethylene production facility in the Netherlands.
  • Large: Aviation assets (including commercial and business aircraft); manufacturing plants; rail assets; robotics; and other industrial equipment.
  • Medium: Clean tech and renewable energy systems; health care technologies; construction equipment; medical equipment (including CT scanners and MRI facilities); printing presses; software solutions.
  • Small: ATMs; in-flight video and audio systems; large mainframe and personal computer systems; mobile health care systems; office equipment; retail point-of-sale equipment; video-production equipment; vehicle leasing.
  • Served as counsel to the U.S. equity investors in numerous domestic sale-leaseback transactions involving passenger rolling stock and buses operated by state and municipal transit agencies located in California, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, D.C.
  • Represented a major chemical company and its affiliate, as guarantor and lessee, respectively, in connection with a $130 million synthetic lease financing of a PET facility in Germany, which included commercial loans and the issuance of commercial paper.
  • Served as counsel to a U.S. equity investor (lessor) in a sale and leaseback of electrical generating facilities valued at more than $500 million, operated by one of the largest power suppliers in the U.S.
  • Represented the finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with a $75 million medical furniture and equipment vendor finance program.
  • Represented the finance company subsidiary of a major money center bank in connection with its $100 million computer software vendor finance program.
  • Represented the U.S. equity investor in a lease of a foreign municipal administrative data processing system — the first transaction of its kind.
  • Represented Bank of Tokyo in connection with a $35 million structured finance transaction for equipment to be constructed in Chile.
  • Served as counsel to a major chemical company and its affiliate, as guarantor and lessee, respectively, in connection with the refinancing of a $79 million synthetic lease financing of an ethylene production facility in the Netherlands.
  • Served as counsel to the lessee, a French mobile telecommunications network operator, in a multiple-tranche U.S. cross-border lease of the lessee’s entire $850 million network.
  • Represent global equipment manufacturer in a $60M lease with the U.S. Navy for refrigeration systems designed for aircraft carriers.
  • Represented global equipment manufacturer in $75M lease for IOT and digital twin infrastructure for a pharmaceutical company.

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