Brandt N. Hardy

From his 21 years of experience doing documentation work as in-house counsel at a major regional bank, Brandt has a first-hand appreciation of the issues his banking clients face in the loan approval process and getting the deal documented and closed. Brandt is a member of the firm’s Banking & Finance, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights, Commercial Lending, Real Estate, Zoning & Public Finance and Cryptocurrency, Blockchain & FinTech  service groups, with an emphasis on providing legal services to our financial institution clients in the structuring and documentation of commercial and real estate loans. Brandt also handles commercial litigation matters in connection with his practice.

Brandt’s financial clients include community banks, regional banks, national banks and private equity.  He advises on deal structuring, preparing loan documentations and getting transactions closed. His practice covers the spectrum of commercial lending; including documentation for real estate financing, asset-based lending and dealer finance. His commercial real estate practice often involves the acquisition and development of real estate for branch banking. Brandt represents clients as sellers and buyers in the acquisition and sale of commercial real estate and as landlords and tenants in commercial leasing.  

Brandt has lived in the "trenches” with his banking clients through the ups and downs of the credit cycles over the years. As in-house counsel during the past financial crisis, Brandt worked with outside counsel to maximize the recovery on distressed real estate debt in the national markets, including Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and the Missouri market in St. Louis. 

In private practice since 2009, Brandt’s practice for his banking clients has covered loan workouts, debt restructuring, foreclosures, receiverships and protecting his clients’ interests in bankruptcy proceedings. His representation of financial institutions in private practice, together with two decades of experience as in-house counsel to bank lending and workout officers, provides Brandt with the skill sets to handle the “crisis of the day,” whether it be negotiating and documenting the terms of a complex commercial or real estate lending transaction, advising a bank workout officer on the ramifications of a bankruptcy filing by a borrower, or pursuing a foreclosure when workout efforts have been exhausted.