R. Marshall Grodner is a Member in the firm’s Baton Rouge office. His practice focuses primarily in commercial transactions, secured transactions, commercial finance, opinion letters, and commercial real estate. Marshall serves as chair of the firm’s legal opinion committee.
Marshall has served as an adjunct professor at the Louisiana State University Law Center. He has authored or co-authored several articles in law reviews and other publications dealing with secured transactions, commercial real estate and other business law issues. Marshall has also delivered lectures and papers throughout the country dealing with loan documentation, secured transactions, ethics and professionalism in the transactional context and real estate law.
Commercial Finance
Known for his experience in secured lending, Marshall has an extensive practice representing both Louisiana and out-of-state lenders in numerous large commercial transactions, locally, regionally and nationally. In recognition of his knowledge and experience in commercial finance, he is a Past President of and a Fellow in the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers (ACCFL), and a past President of the Association of Commercial Attorneys.
Marshall is also a past Chair of the Commercial Finance Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA). He is the co-chair of the Joint Task Force for Deposit Account Control Agreements, of the Business Law Section of the ABA. Marshall also is past Chair of the Loan Documentation Subcommittee of the Commercial Finance Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA.
Real Estate Finance
Marshall has served as both lender’s and borrower’s counsel in connection with large commercial real estate financing transactions, including acquisition finance, construction finance, project finance, and refinancing, on casinos, offices, industrial sites, and apartment complexes in Louisiana. He has also served as local Louisiana counsel on numerous national and multi-state commercial transactions involving real estate. Additionally, Marshall has served as counsel to several lenders in multi-state transactions involving real estate outside of Louisiana.
As part of his real estate practice, Marshall is a licensed Louisiana title insurance agent for most of the major title insurance companies, including First American Title Insurance Company, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, Chicago Title Insurance Company, Commonwealth Title Insurance Company, Lawyers Title Insurance Company and Title Resources Group, and regularly issues title insurance policies to lenders, purchasers, and lessees of property in Louisiana.
In recognition of his knowledge and experience in commercial real estate and real estate finance, Marshall is a Fellow in the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) and is a member of its Title Insurance Committee, Attorneys’ Opinion Committee, Capital Markets Committee, and Professional Responsibility Committee. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Mortgage Attorneys, and a member of its Attorneys’ Opinion Committee.
Legal Opinions
Marshall regularly issues legal opinions both as general and local counsel for borrowers in complex multistate, regional, and local transactions. These opinions typically deal with secured transactions, real estate finance and securitizations, and include standard third-party closing opinions, true sale opinions, non-consolidation opinions, and other opinions regarding complex transactional and financing issues.
He writes and gives presentations on the national level on opinion letter topics and issues. He is a Contributing Reporter, “Uniform Commercial Code Opinions in Real Estate Finance Transactions,” 53 Real Property Trust & Estate Law Journal, 163 (Fall 2018/Winter 2019).
Marshall is a member of the Editorial Board of “Opinion Matters,” a publication of the Real Property Group, of the Real Property, Trust and Estate Section of the ABA dealing with legal opinion issues. He is also Chair of the Legal Opinions Committee of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, a member of the Attorneys’ Opinion Committees of both the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American College, a member of the Legal Opinions Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA, and a founding member of the Commercial Finance Legal Opinions Subcommittee of the Commercial Finance Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA.