Capital Markets Lending

Miller Canfield’s Capital Markets Lending Group is a veteran team of capital markets lending lawyers, industry professionals and paralegals who accomplish client financial transactions objectives by analyzing, documenting, closing, warehousing, servicing, staging and selling commercial and multifamily mortgage loans destined for securitization and arrange all forms of asset-backed lending.

From the inception of the commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) industry in the early 1990s, we have worked with and advised lenders at the forefront of the industry. Financings are expedited by our attorneys’ extensive, in-depth experience in closing and advising Wall Street, national and regional lenders in connection with several hundreds of loans destined for securitization and secured by commercial and multifamily real estate in nearly all 50 states.  Our clients include a diverse group of national and regional lenders, with loan sizes ranging from $1 million to in excess of $75 million, and aggregating several billion dollars in loan volume.

Members of the Capital Markets Lending Group develop lending programs and systematic processes and documentation for both lenders and law firms in capital markets and traditional lending and have extensive leadership experience in the organization, acquisitions, sales, structuring, program design and day-to-day multi-state operation and compliance of portfolio, conduit and MBS and ABS loan originators and contributors, mortgage bankers, correspondents and servicers.  Leaders within the group have developed, and continue to refine, loan documentation and closing process "engines" for multistate lending, and consult with lenders in connection with the systematic organization and automation of lending processes and document automation.

Clients reap the benefits of our attorneys’ recurring representations and counseling in assumptions, modifications, defeasance, hyperamortization, earn-outs and mezzanine financing, licensing issues, and strategic alliances. We negotiate and prepare servicing agreements, table funding arrangements, mortgage loan purchase agreements, warehouse and repo agreements, pooling and servicing agreements, origination and anticipation agreements and secondary market and whole loan portfolio purchase and sale agreements.

The geographic breadth of Miller Canfield’s capital markets lending practice has developed a strong nationwide network of local counsel, a good library of uniform mortgage financing documents for the various states, an extensive collection of opinions and materials relating to closing matters, licensing requirements and "doing business" issues, and local law, customs and practices involved in real estate financing. Clients appreciate the time-saving advantages of the unique, comprehensive and authoritative guide for each step and virtually any issue involved in the capital markets lending practice that we maintain. This guide serves as a recurring training and active reference for all members of the team.

The Capital Markets Lending Group is a national leader in the use of sophisticated transaction management and document automation software specifically designed for the commercial mortgage lending practice, allowing Miller Canfield to provide its lender clients with extraordinary value in terms of efficiencies and timeliness, consistent quality, assured best practices, and outstanding collaboration response and reporting. Unique staffing ( the group’s administrative Loan Closing Manager is a former industry executive with many years of experience in national markets), the availability of proactive alternative billing and process risk sharing arrangements, and advanced data collaboration capabilities, have been specifically developed to serve our clients.

Members of the Capital Markets Lending Group play an active role in the CMBS industry with memberships in the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA), Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (CMSA) and Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO).  Our attorneys are program faculty, authors and committee leaders in these and other industry organizations.