Brooke Iley counsels and defends domestic and foreign corporations in all areas of employment and labor law compliance and litigation, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour class and collective actions, trade secret disputes and data protection, and alleged fiduciary breaches. She represents clients in negotiations, litigations, and arbitrations nationally in these areas.

The last 18 months have brought challenges unlike no other. Stewart Hayes, chair of the SFNet 2021 40 Under 40 Awards and managing director, Wells Fargo Capital Finance, sat down with four former SFNet 40 Under 40 Award winners who led their company or group practice during 2020-2021 to dive into how they addressed challenges, what helped prepare them to weather the COVID crisis, and advice on handling the next curveball.

As many SFNet members know, a strong work-out culture, in which lenders and their financially distressed borrowers use out-of-court workouts (OCWs") as a less costly and more efficient alternative to  formal bankruptcy proceedings, is a well-established feature of the U.S. lending environment. 

Economic Context

The recession of 2008-2009 brought many lessons to the lending community; and the small independent finance companies were no exception. When looking back at that period, many of the lessons that we should all remember occurred in 2005-2007, during the lead up to the recession.

If you’ll recall, the economy was strong and business was booming. For small independent finance companies (that typically run counter-cyclical), new business was harder to come by and highly competitive. As is often the case, this led to aggressive structures and lower pricing, a bad combination.

While lenders and financial institutions are not looking to discover the next vaccine or medical breakthrough, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have been reshaping traditional business processes at a rapid speed. Many decision makers in the C-Suites, while still responsible for ensuring everyday “blocking and tackling” is done, are dealing with how best to integrate AI/ML into their companies, and at what cost. This article takes a deeper dive into how AI and ML are being utilized in the industry along with the factors leaders must consider with AI/ML integration.

Tiger Finance has closed on a $15.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing to facilitate the Chapter 11 restructuring of Pennsauken, N.J.-based Aluminum Shapes LLC, a fully integrated manufacturer and distributor of aluminum products serving multiple industries.

Aluminum Shapes LLC, which operates a 500,000-square-foot facility in Pennsauken, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August 15th in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey.