People

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William F. Stutts
Senior Counsel

Overview

Bill Stutts focuses on corporate finance, corporate reorganization, bank regulation, equipment finance, and derivatives. In reorganizations, he has handled licensor and licensee issues covering information technology, and creditor and lessor representation in proceedings involving enterprises in restaurants, financial services, refining, resource extraction, and electronic commerce. He has worked extensively with cross-border insolvency issues (principally U.S./Netherlands, U.S./England, U.S./Canada, U.S./Switzerland, U.S./Antigua and U.S./Cayman Islands).

Mr. Stutts' financial regulatory experience involves both structural regulation for financial institutions (affecting mergers, acquisitions, subsidiary and investment vehicle structure, resolution and formation of domestic institutions and the regulatory status of foreign bank operations), and operational regulation (including commercial mortgage administration, money laundering and related sanctions). In other areas, he represents end users and non-dealer counterparties in a wide variety of derivatives and he regularly represents aircraft owners and lessors in several kinds of financing structures.

Following graduation from law school, Mr. Stutts served as a law clerk to The Honorable Homer Thornberry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 1998, he conducted a course on Bankruptcy Judicial Training in Mongolia for the International Law Institute. In addition to the work in Mongolia, he has participated in law reform initiatives in Texas, Botswana, Morocco, Serbia, Brunei and the Federated States of Micronesia. Since 1998, he has been an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law, where he currently teaches a class on the regulation of financial markets and has previously taught a class on the regulation of money transfers, money laundering and terrorist financing.

Admission & Affiliations

  • State Bar of Texas

    United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

    United States District Court for the Western District of Texas

    American Law Institute

    American Bankruptcy Institute

    American Bar Association, Committee on Developments in Business Financing

    American College of Investment Counsel

    Austin Bar Association, Director, 1995 to 1997

    Texas Bar Foundation, Life Fellow

  • J.D., University of Virginia School of Law 1976
    Executive Editor, Virginia Law Review
  • B.A., English, The University of Texas 1973
    with high honors

Experience

  • Bristow Group, Inc. – Four rounds of secured debt and lease financing with new and existing credit providers, totaling approximately $480 million in new funding for the group
  • Several global enterprises in energy and technology sectors – restructuring of derivatives documentation (and re-negotiation of the program with many independent counterparties) involving interest rate, hydrocarbon commodity, and currency derivatives
  • Several industrial and commercial enterprises and specialty lenders – receivables securitizations using commercial paper conduits, private placements, public offerings and direct purchases of securitization interests
  • Domestic and foreign banks and non-bank financial institutions – advice and representation compliance with the restrictions of Executive Order 13224 and FinCEN conduct regulations, systems issues on money laundering prevention, and related investigations
  • Shareholder groups and banks in connection with changes in control and changes in ownership of domestic banks
  • AIG and other institutional purchasers of notes – 144A offerings of notes backed by residential real estate mortgages
  • Several public companies – reconfiguration of derivatives hedging portfolios and documentation, as well as regulatory compliance, and automation of corporate treasury systems
  • Reliant Energy, CenterPoint Houston Electric and Cleco Power and other utilities – utility legislative securitizations (including stranded costs and storm damage recovery bonds), issued in difference circumstances over a period of 15 years involving issuances in excess of $6 billion
  • CenterPoint Energy Resources Corporation – several securitizations of consumer receivables
  • Dell Financial and subsidiaries – coordination of positions in FX derivatives
  • Institutional lenders and aircraft owners and operators (U.S. and non-U.S.) – lease financings and loans for aircraft and other equipment, totaling more than $2 billion
  • CenterPoint Energy, Inc., and subsidiaries – coordination of positions in interest rate derivatives
  • Institutional purchasers of notes – negotiated and 144A acquisitions in private placements of debt of enterprises in many industry groups
  • Sponsors, owners and managers of private trust companies that provide financial services to defined family groups
  • Several public companies – total return swaps involving equities, commodities hedges, interest rate hedges, call spread overlays on convertible debt, prepaid forward sales of equity securities, currency swaps, rate locks and related hedging financial transactions
  • United States Federal Railroad Administration – lease and loan financing of Amtrak for the acquisition of new locomotives and for infrastructure upgrades
  • Office building owners, including National Office Partners and Hines, and shopping center owners – lease-based and mortgage-based securitized financing of office buildings in several locations, including California, the District of Columbia, New York and Texas
  • State pension fund investors – renegotiation of debt on several office buildings and representation in bankruptcies of building owners
  • Affiliates of a global power company – structured financing of power generation facilities in Hawaii and Oklahoma
  • Privately held purchaser – purchase of a division of American Pad & Paper Company from the bankruptcy estate, involving a contested auction, contested lease assignments and extensive HSR antitrust review
  • Bank lender – loan to and Chapter 11 reorganization of Schlotzsky’s, Inc. and in state court receivership of an affiliate of Schlotzsky's
  • Seismic data company – financings during and emerging from Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings
  • Privately held bank holding companies and privately held banks – acquisition of independent banks, including regulatory analysis (a matter of first impression) of deposit concentration analysis in the banks’ market areas
  • Ralph S. Janvey, court-appointed receiver for R. Allen Stanford and others – receivership investigational recognition, addressing issues of powers, asset recovery, insolvency of non-U.S. financial institutions and dealings related to foreign banks and foreign assets
  • Equistar Chemicals – synthetic lease financing totaling $250 million for Equistar’s railcar fleet, including mechanisms for adding rolling stock as it comes online.
  • Seismic data licensor – multi-jurisdictional securitization of seismic data and license revenues
  • Several foreign banks and financial services companies and domestic trust companies – advice and counsel in connection with U.S. operations and U.S. financial regulations


Awards and Community

Junior Fellow, The University of Texas at Austin, 1972-73

American Law Institute admitted 2010

Named “Adjunct Professor of the Year” for the University of Texas Law School, 2012-13 Academic Year

Named “Lawyer for the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for 2016 for Banking and Finance in Austin

Named “Lawyer for the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for 2014 for Financial Services Regulation Law in Austin

Named “Lawyer for the Year” by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for 2012 for Banking and Finance in Austin

Listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.), 1995-2022, most recently in the areas of Banking and Finance Law, Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Derivatives and Futures Law, Equipment Finance Law, Financial Services Regulation Law and Securitization and Structured Finance Law

Recognized as a Texas Super Lawyer (Thomson Reuters), 2003-2005 & 2010-2013

Listed in The Legal 500 for bank lending, 2009