Marco Materassi initiated his professional focus on secured lending and real estate while practicing as an associate the international law firm, Latham & Watkins. During his time there, the many of the matters he handled stemmed from the Savings and Loan Crisis of the mid 1980s to mid 1990s. As thrift institutions were being declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Resolution Trust Company began marshaling and disposing of the mortgage and real property assets of these failed institutions.
It was in the context of the complex unwinding and disposition of these assets, the Mr. Materassi was introduced to real estate conveyancing, title insurance, and secured mortgage lending. The day-to- day review of voluminous files containing mortgage related documents, UCC financing statements and security agreements, work-out agreements and title insurance reports and policies gave Mr. Materassi an in-depth understanding the interplay of the real estate industry and primary mortgage market, secondary mortgage market and the title insurance industry.
At Latham & Watkins, Mr. Materassi also worked closely with the Firms secured lending group, which at the time was representing numerous lenders involved in large corporate lending syndicates.Again, the day-to- day review and interaction with revolving loan agreements, wraparound mortgages, pledge agreements and a variety of other documents and instruments used to collateralize not just real property, but the complete spectrum of corporation assets, gave Mr. Materassi a deep understanding of the commercial lending business. Mr. Materassi brought this experience and professional expertise to his private practice.
Upon striking out on his own, Mr. Materassi quickly began representing many lenders involved in the residential mortgage industry. In just a few short years the practice grew from just himself and a paralegal, to a full office with multiple attorneys and paralegals all trained by Mr. Materassi himself. Notable clients at the time consisted of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Citimortgage, Inc., Bank of America, NA, Countrywide Home Loans, Greenpoint Mortgage Funding to name only a few.
At the same time, the Firm began to represent buyer and sellers of all types of real estate: first-time home buyers purchasing their first house, Co-op or condominium; Sellers liquidating long held family assets consisting of multi-family buildings and multi-use properties located throughout New York City; developers acquiring real property through short sales and foreclosures as well as developers acquiring vacant land or existing properties for demolition and ground-up development.
Yet all the while, Mr. Materassi has remained committed delivering his services in cost-effective, solution-driven approach were the typical professional distance often maintained between attorneys and clients is rejected and replaced with a bridge of understanding cooperation that has created a path to long-standing referral relationships and continued representation with many of the Firm’s clients.
So whether the client is young couple buying their first home, and older individual downsizing from the home in which they raised their children; a group of investors cherry-picking assets for rehabilitation and development; a federally chartered lender with no actual bricks and mortar in New York State, or a local family owned mortgage bank…ultimately our goal is the same: provide the client with the best representation possible and at a reasonable cost. This is our Firm philosophy.
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