For more than 30 years, Nick Gatto has been counselling public and private entities on a range of corporate finance strategies including capital markets investments, institutional and non-traditional debt financing, workouts and restructures.
Nick represents borrowers, lenders, and investors in the financing of acquisitions, working capital, refinancings and consolidations, and debtor-in-possession operations, among other matters. Formerly a corporate finance partner with Holland & Knight LLP in New York City, Nick has negotiated and closed a number of sophisticated financings, both domestic and international, including syndicated and single-lender institutional loans, privately placed notes exempt from registration under Rule 144A, asset-based finance, real estate finance, structured finance, nontraditional lender finance, mezzanine finance, lease finance, project finance, aircraft finance, federal export credit and overseas development finance, insurance company private placements, and commercial hard money finance. Nick advises many of the firm’s public and private business clients as well as a number of financial institutions and debt investors.
Nick began his legal career in the business reorganization group of the law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges, the nation’s largest corporate chapter 11 practice. He has appeared in the bankruptcy courts of the states of New York, Delaware, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and Connecticut. Nick continues to advise and represent creditor clients in all aspects of bankruptcy matters, including claims resolution, defense of preference actions, purchase of assets and businesses out of bankruptcy, stay relief, and the chapter 11 plan process. Nick has also represented a number of financial institutions and other creditor constituencies in out-of-court workouts and in the exercise of secured creditor remedies.
PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC AFFILIATIONS
- Member, Board of Directors, Autism Services, Inc.
- New York State Bar Association
- National Association of Bond Lawyers
- Banking Law Committee, Bar Association of Erie County
- Turnaround Management Association
- Buffalo Niagara Partnership CanAm Council
- Board of Education, Trinity Christian School, West Seneca, NY
- Chairman of the Board of Directors, Pioneer Camp and Retreat Center, Inc., Angola, NY
- Endowment Fund Committee, Trinity Lutheran Church, West Seneca, NY
HONORS & AWARDS
- Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® for Banking and Finance Law; Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships)
- Legal Elite of Western New York, Buffalo Business First/Buffalo Law Journal, 2019
- Cornell Law Review 1983-85, Research Editor 1984-85, Cornell Law School
