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Stephen Whelan concentrates his practice in equipment leasing and financing, secured lending, asset securitization, energy finance, and corporate trust. He represents originators of financial assets, investment banks, credit enhancers, trustees, and investors in the financing of:<ul>	<li>Equipment leases</li>	<li>Maritime containers and other transportation assets</li>	<li>Energy receivables</li>	<li>Export receivables</li>	<li>Auto loans</li>	<li>Franchise receivables</li>	<li>Health care receivables</li>	<li>Trade receivables</li>	<li>Various other financial assets</li></ul>Steve also represents lenders, lessors, trustees, and arrangers in lease financings for&nbsp;aircraft, railcars, vehicles, maritime, medical, and energy and telecommunications equipment. He is also involved in private and government financing of industrial, housing, and education projects.In other structured finance areas, Steve’s work for many insurance and banking clients includes handling note purchase agreements, term loans, revolving credit facilities, and letters of credit.&nbsp;He also represents lessors and secured creditors in workouts or bankruptcy reorganizations involving equipment leases and securitized portfolios.Steve has authored four books on UCC Article 2A (Leases), as well as the chapters on securitization in the Matthew Bender treatises Commercial Finance and Equipment Leasing.&nbsp;He&nbsp;has also co-authored the American Bar Association’s “Uniform Commercial Code Annual Survey: Leases” for The Business Lawyer. Steve frequently publishes and lectures on topics such as securitization, leasing, energy finance, and bankruptcy.&nbsp;

core/freeform

New York

Supreme Court of the United States

U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York

Finance & Restructuring

Financial Services

Aviation

Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFTs”) & Digital Assets

Renewable Energy

Transportation

ADG Bankruptcy

Energy Equipment Finance

Stephen T. Whelan Named to Monitor Daily’s Most Influential People in Equipment Finance List

Energy Finance in the Age of AI—Emerging Opportunities for Equipment Finance

Hell or High Water—Maybe

Blank Rome Attorneys Recognized in 2026 Best Lawyers in America®

Climate Finance Assets

Blank Rome Represents LEAF Commercial Capital, Inc. in Its Issuance of Asset-Backed Securities

Blank Rome Represents Verdant Commercial Capital in Its Issuance of Asset-Backed Securities

Energy Finance

Blank Rome Celebrates 35 Years of Membership in the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association

Leases (Fall 2024)

Transparency Is Coming to Equipment Finance

Blank Rome Attorneys Recognized in 2025 Best Lawyers in America®

Wire Fraud!

Energy Equipment/Climate Finance

Leases (Fall 2023)

Predominant Purpose: What’s That?

Blank Rome Attorneys Recognized in 2024 Best Lawyers in America®

50 Years 50 Moments

How Do You Tell the Story of an Industry?: Tracing Equipment Finance’s Past, Present and Future

Equipment Leasing

Maritime – Transactions & Finance

Bankruptcy & Restructuring

Structured Finance

Finance

<ul>
<li>Representation of investment bankers in structured financings of transport equipment combining asset securitization and tax-advantaged leveraged leases.</li>
<li>Counsel for a major equipment finance lessor in its transfer of servicing as part of its exit strategy.</li>
<li>Counsel for the merchant banker in structured financings of internet service payments, motion picture revenues, and casino vessels.</li>
<li>Investor counsel in “future flow” securitizations of receivables generated by Brazilian exporters.</li>
<li>Representation of a merchant banker in the securitization of leveraged lease equity cash flows from a pool of project finance and aircraft transactions that had been assembled several years earlier.</li>
<li>Representation of institutional investors in financing government receivables from an installment sale of energy equipment.</li>
<li>Counsel for the administrator and collateral agent in the project financing of a new airport in Quito, Ecuador.</li>
<li>Underwriter’s counsel in a tax-exempt bond financing of a midtown Manhattan high-rise building to be used for apartments, a cancer patient hotel, and a Catholic rectory.</li>
<li>Counseled Fortune 50 finance subsidiaries in the sales of equipment finance portfolios.</li>
</ul>
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
<ul>
<li>American Bar Association Annual Survey: Leases, The Business Lawyer, Vol. 77, pp&nbsp;1261–1272 (2022)</li>
<li>“Moon Shot! Factors to Consider When Structuring a True Sale,” Equipment Leasing &amp; Finance Magazine, March/April 2022</li>
<li>“New York: The Empire State … of Regulations,” Monitor Daily, May 2021</li>
<li>“Leasing Law: Bundle Up!,” Equipment Leasing &amp; Finance Magazine, March/April 2021</li>
<li>“Double Trouble: New York and California Threaten Many Business Practices,” 2020 Monitor Daily 101+, September/October 2020</li>
<li>“Republic Airways: Crash Landing for SLV Damages,” Equipment Leasing &amp; Finance Magazine, October 2019</li>
<li>“Tipping the Scales: The Great Escape,” Monitor Daily, March/April 2019</li>
<li>“In the Penalty Box: Default Interest,” Equipment Leasing &amp; Finance Magazine, October 2018</li>
<li>“Stipulate—and Lose?” The Monitor, July/August 2018</li>
<li>“Blockchain: Staying Ahead of Tomorrow,” The Journal of Equipment Lease Financing, Spring 2017</li>
<li>“Chapter 1: Asset Securitization,” Wong and Leichtling (eds.), Commercial Finance Guide (Matthew Bender, 2017)</li>
<li>“Securitization: A Renaissance for Equipment Finance,” Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation Special Report, 2015</li>
<li>“Chapter 13: Securitization,” Dubin and Wong (eds.), Equipment Leasing (Matthew Bender and Co., 2014)</li>
<li>“The ABCs of the UCC:&nbsp;Article 2A” (Leases), co-author with Prof. Amelia Boss, American Bar Association, 2013</li>
<li>“Regulation RR: On Track,” Equipment Leasing &amp; Finance Magazine, November/December 2015</li>
<li>“High and Dry: Maritime Lenders Can Glean Lessons from Recent Bankruptcies,” Equipment Finance Monitor, January/February 2013</li>
</ul>

Stephen T. Whelan

Stephen T. Whelan

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