Lawrence F. Flick II has seen specialty finance grow dramatically in both scale and complexity during his career. Early on, transactions — and the law firms supporting them — were largely local or regional. Today, as vice chair of Blank Rome and head of its financial services industry team, he continues to be a driving force in building Blank Rome’s national practice of more than 100 finance and restructuring lawyers in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Orange County, New York, Philadelphia and Wilmington. The practice is national but includes a significant number of complex cross-border financings.
“Last year we worked on transactions with collateral in over 40 countries,” Flick notes. Despite this vast expansion, the core of the industry remains constant: the need for practical business-minded practitioners who understand both the front-end structuring of transactions and the realities of workouts, restructurings and bankruptcy.
At Blank Rome his entire career, Flick benefited from early experience both structuring and documenting transactions and with distressed situations.” At Blank Rome, all of our young lawyers are trained to handle both, allowing them to see how important the provisions of the credit agreement and other documents they have negotiated are when the transaction is in a workout or bankruptcy,” he explains. Beyond helping to build a powerhouse practice, Flick has dedicated much of his career to mentoring the next generation, fostering a culture of technical excellence, practicality and integrity.
His perspective is rooted in hands-on experience. Early on, an asset-based lender brought him on a field exam at a local manufacturer, giving him an under-the-hood view of how collateral is assessed. “Those foundations have shaped my entire career,” Flick says. He learned that technical skill matters, but lasting success comes from trusted, long-term relationships.
