Steven E. Ostrow Partner

Steve Ostrow represents lenders, institutional investors, equipment financiers, loan and asset purchasers/sellers and other secured creditors in foreclosures, rent receiverships, loan sales, credit restructurings and workouts, bankruptcies and complex asset recovery proceedings. He advises clients at all levels of the capital structure in a wide variety of structured transactions, including mezzanine loans, participations and other co-lender and intercreditor arrangements.  He regularly represents clients in distressed loan transactions and bankruptcy proceedings throughout the country, particularly in the mid-Atlantic states of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

Steve’s approach to handling workout/foreclosure cases is to be responsive and hands-on from the time a loan goes into distress through post-foreclosure sale of REO property or deficiency proceedings.  He focuses on promptly and efficiently reaching the client's goals, whether they be securing, enhancing or recovering collateral, modifying or restructuring a non-performing loan or resolving protracted litigation through alternative dispute resolution, including consensual or court-ordered mediations and settlement conferences.

Steve has helped lenders and judgment creditors recover substantial delinquent loans and judgments through consensual workouts and foreclosures, execution/attachment/asset discovery proceedings against borrowers, guarantors and third parties, and non-judicial sales of personal property collateral under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.  In doing so, Steve has foreclosed upon a myriad of collateral such as office buildings, shopping centers, housing developments, apartment buildings, ground leases, industrial facilities, distilleries, commercial paper and business inventory, equipment and accounts.

Steve has substantial experience in advising secured and unsecured creditors seeking to enforce their rights and protect their claims in bankruptcy proceedings.  He has assisted secured creditors in protecting their collateral from a diminution in value or waste in connection with, for example, cash collateral motions, and obtaining relief from the automatic stay in order to exercise their rights and remedies by foreclosing on or taking possession of their collateral.  Steve advises clients if any proposed plan of reorganization or other relief sought during the bankruptcy proceeding might adversely affect their claim, collateral or rights. 

Steve has also represented defendants in preferential transfer and fraudulent conveyance avoidance actions filed by debtors or trustees in Chapter 7 or 11 bankruptcy cases.  In addition to avoidance actions, he represents purchasers in sales of a debtor’s assets under Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code so the client has the best possible opportunity to be the successful bidder at an auction sale.  He also frequently defends lenders, suppliers, vendors and other creditors in adversary proceedings relating to breach of contract, property turnover and other claims.

Steve also represents mall owners, other landowners and tenants in leasing transactions, real estate litigation and retail bankruptcies. The real estate work includes lease preparation, renewals and modifications, lease enforcement litigation, resolution of disputes regarding early tenant closures, lease assignments, cam and percentage rent issues, operating covenants and co-tenancy and exclusivity clauses.  Steve has protected his client-landlord’s rights during the tenant’s bankruptcy proceeding by: moving to compel payment of post-petition administrative rent or to obtain relief from the automatic bankruptcy stay to evict the tenant; objecting to motions to extend the time to assume or reject leases, or to assume and assign leases and proposed cure amounts; objecting to store closing, going out of business or lease assumption/rejection procedures motions; objecting to motions to sell assets and assume and assign related leases; and/or filing proofs of claim for landlords to recover lease rejection damage claims.

Steve is frequently invited to speak to clients and legal and industry groups on a number of topics, including structured real estate investments, recent developments in commercial loans, workouts, bankruptcies, guarantees and fraudulent transfers.

Representative Matters

• Represented the participants controlling the senior mezzanine loans of $300 million for one of the largest structured real estate financings in U.S. history, Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village, New York
• Represented the lender group in restructuring a mortgage loan over $100 million for a resort in the Rocky Mountains
• Represented the lender in foreclosing its $56 million mortgage encumbering a ground leased office tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Recognition & Involvement

While in law school, Steve was a member of the Law Review of The George Washington University School of Law.

Steve is AV® rated by the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system.