Champoux joins Crowell & Moring as Financial Services/R.E. partner

Crowell & Moring LLP has added Financial Services Group partner Barbara Champoux to the firm's city office. A commercial real estate attorney with a background in a range of transactional, leasing, and securities matters, she has advised clients for more than 15 years. She joins Crowell & Moring from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP. "Barbara is a terrific addition to our growing N.Y. office, where she will support the growth of our Financial Services and Corporate groups. One important role Barbara will play is in supporting bankruptcy and distressed debt matters, which almost always have a real estate component because real estate assets don't disappear. Barbara brings a sophisticated set of skills that allow her to offer clients practical, strategic counsel," said William O'Connor, chair of Crowell & Moring's Financial Service Group. Champoux received her B.A. from Wheaton College and her J.D. from the New York Law School. Champoux has handled a wide variety of significant financing transactions, including secured and unsecured loans; construction and permanent financing; debt and equity financing; revolving and term loans; sale/leasebacks and leveraged leasing; conduit and securitized loans; mezzanine financing; project finance; and credit enhancement. She has also represented borrowers, lenders and investors in connection with troubled loans, on matters involving loan reorganizations and workouts, deeds-in-lieu, bankruptcy sales and debtor-in-possession financing, as well as handling the financing, acquisition and disposition of distressed loan portfolios (both REO and non-REO assets). She has been very active for most of her career in the lodging, leisure and retail industries, assisting various stakeholders in connection with the acquisition, financing, development, construction, leasing, management and operation of hotels/resorts, theme parks, concert venues, cultural attractions, themed restaurants, sports/entertainment venues, and similar projects. Representative projects handled by Champoux also include shopping center and retail development and leasing, mixed-use urban redevelopment, and public private partnerships. Her work has included serving as lead counsel to one of the world's largest regional theme park operators on a variety of real estate, construction, finance and operational issues. "Crowell & Moring's Financial Services Group has experienced tremendous growth in N.Y. It offers clients integrated teams of highly-experienced, diverse professionals who understand their clients' business demands and create pragmatic solutions to overcome their legal and regulatory challenges. As such, the group is positioned to assist clients in successfully navigating through the financial and operational constraints currently facing many businesses. I am proud to join the firm and look forward to bringing my commercial real estate experience to a team that has built its reputation on client service," said Champoux. Crowell & Moring LLP is an international law firm with more than 450 lawyers practicing in litigation, antitrust, government contracts, health care, corporate, intellectual property and a variety of other practice areas. More than two-thirds of the firm's attorneys regularly litigate disputes on behalf of domestic and international corporations, start-up businesses, and individuals. Crowell & Moring's extensive client work ranges from advising on one of the world's largest telecommunications mergers to representing governments and corporations on international arbitration matters. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm also has offices in N.Y., London, Brussels, Los Angeles, and Irvine, Calif. Visit Crowell & Moring online at http://www.crowell.com.