Evan M. Drutman

Evan Drutman is a Partner in the New York office of Locke Lord LLP where he focuses on structured finance, asset-based lending and complex financial transactions. Evan is the head of the Securitization section of the Firm’s Debt Finance Practice Group. He has represented almost every variety of market participant – including issuers, underwriters, investors, trustees, servicers and rating agencies – in securitizations of mortgages, home equity loans, commercial loans and other asset classes, utilizing virtually every tax and cashflow structure and form of credit enhancement, including derivatives. He has counseled Fortune 500 and boutique financing companies on asset purchases and sales, whole loan transactions, repurchase agreements and various structured transactions, including the litigation and bankruptcy implications of such transactions.

Evan is a principal outside counsel to a major rating agency, advising on structures, methodologies, criteria, legal comfort, regulatory compliance and corporate governance.

Evan has recently counseled clients with respect to the legislation and regulation of the financial markets; he established the securitization program and mortgage loan sale program for a major commercial bank; and he has served on numerous working groups and presentation panels for the American Securitization Forum and the Structured Finance Association.

• Counsel to a major nationally recognized statistical rating organization, advising on structures, legal criteria, legal opinions, corporate governance, regulatory examinations, regulatory compliance in light of rating agency reform and legal compliance with securities regulation
• Representation of nearly every major investment bank, and numerous commercial banks and specialty finance companies, in structured finance transactions having most types of credit enhancement, including senior/subordinate structures, overcollateralization, "wrap" deals with monoline insurers and hybrid structures with swaps, caps, guaranties, overcollateralization, excess spread, reserve funds and letters of credit
• Counsel to a major commercial bank in the development of its securitization program and "whole loan" purchase and sale program
• Counsel to a major investor of RMBS produces in the purchase of private-label jumbo product
• Counsel to a major financial guaranty insurance company in connection with a default of complex derivatives transactions, in anticipation of litigation
• Counsel to a significant financial services provider with respect to a workout of defaulted CDOs
• Counsel to a large investment bank in connection with litigation involving repurchase claims from breaches of mortgage loan representations and warranties
• Counsel to a significant purchaser of residential, mortgage-backed security (RMBS) as to its rights and remedies in light of defaults on the underlying mortgage loans
• Borrower’s counsel to a major financial services provider in connection with a repurchase agreement with a national bank
• Issuer’s counsel to a national insurance company in the re-securitization of a large portfolio of its RMBS holdings
• Representation of a major investment bank in the creation of a whole loan program for the purchase of residential mortgage loans
• Representation of one of the nation’s largest originators of residential mortgage loans in connection with whole loan sales and Reg. AB advice
• Counsel to a major investment bank in the development, management and issuance of securities in connection with a multibillion-dollar CDO program for the resecuritizations of subordinate and residual securities
• Counsel to six separate investment banks as sponsors of over $50 billion of GSE agency CMO transactions