MICHAEL L. WEISSMAN is of counsel to the Chicago law firm of Levin & Ginsburg and formerly served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Bridgeview Bank Group. His practice is devoted to financial and business transactions including the structuring of a wide variety of financing transactions. Mike has also actively prosecuted civil and bankruptcy matters on behalf of financial institutions and defended them in lender liability lawsuits.
Mike has a wealth of experience in the legal and business aspects of secured and unsecured lending for all types of credit facilities. During his career, Mike has represented most of the major banks and commercial lenders in the Chicago area and many from outside Chicago. At Holland & Knight he takes great pride in applying his expertise and experience so that routine deals are closed at market-dictated costs and value is added to the more sophisticated transactions.
Mike received his J.D. from the Harvard Law School, was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Sydney (Australia) Faculty of Law, received his M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate Division of the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Northwestern University. He is on the roster for the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars and in 2006 received a Senior Specialists Grant to lecture at the School of Business Administration Turiba in Riga, Latvia in May on commercial and real estate lending in the U.S. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at John Marshall Law School teaching Secured Transactions. Earlier in his career he taught Accounting and Business Law at Roosevelt University and Lake Forest College.
Mike has published articles frequently in journals devoted to banking and commercial finance, including “Lending in Illinois: 1998 Case Decisions and How they Affect Your Bank,” Illinois Banker 7 (March 1999); “Recent Cases that Affect the Way Lenders Transact Business,” 14 Commercial Lending Review 63 (Winter 1998-99); “15 Recent Cases That Change the Landscape for Commercial Lenders,” 13 Commercial Lending Review 37 (Fall 1998), “Lender Liability: How Much Vitality Does It Have?” 80 The Journal of Lending & Credit Risk Management 54 (1997), “The Law of Guaranty in the United States” International Agency and Distribution Law (Matthew Bender, 1996), “Is a Faxed Document Enforceable?” 59 The Secured Lender 18 (1994), “The Consequences of a Fiduciary Relationship” 76 The Journal of Commercial Lending 43 (1994), “The Menacing Doctrine of No-Fault Equitable Subordination” 8 Commercial Lending Review 71 (1993) and “New Real Estate Lending Standards Under FDICIA” 78 Illinois Banker 22 (l993). His latest publications include "A Creditor's Guide to Article 9 Compliance" in the April, 2007 Illinois Bar Journal, "Current Issues for Secured Lenders" in the March, 2007 Banking Law Journal, and "The Liability of a Bank for the Misconduct of its Officer" (2007 Supplement to Lexis Nexus Treatise on Commercial Damages).
He has lectured for such diverse groups as the American Bar Association, the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, The Robert Morris Associates, the Commercial Finance Association, The Illinois Bankers Association, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Illinois CPA Society, the Chicago-Midwest Credit Service Corporation, the Mississippi Law Institute, the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry, the Midwest Finance Conference and The Illinois Institute on Continuing Legal Education. He has been a panelist on many seminars sponsored by The Lender’s Forum, The Banking Law Institute, The Bank Lending Institute, State of the Art Seminars, Infocast, Inc., Lenders Educational Institute, The Bank Administration Institute and Clarion Legal.
During 2002 he was a featured speaker at the Financial Institutions Conference of the Texas Certified Public Accountants CPE Foundation. In 2003 and 2005, he was a featured speaker at the Annual Bank Counsels' Conference of the Illinois Bankers Association and in 2004 and 2005 spoke at both the National Loan Review Conference and the National Loan Operations Conference of the Bank Administration Institute and at the 2004 and 2006 Annual Risk Management Conventions of the Risk Management Association. In 2007 he was the featured speaker at the Wyoming Bankers Association Annual Credit Conference, and spoke at the Illinois Bankers Association 2007 Annual Convention. He teaches Commercial Loan Documentation and Real Estate Fundamentals in the Mentor Program of the Risk Management Association, and conducts a seminar on Commercial Mortgage Lending for the Illinois Bankers Association. He also frequently conducts in-house training programs for financial institutions throughout the country.
Mike has been a member of the Committee on Commercial Financial Service of the ABA’s Section on Business Law, a former Director of the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, a former Vice Chairman of the Bank Counsel Committee of the Illinois Bankers Association, a Director, Member of the Executive Committee and Chairman (2001-2002) of The Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and former Chairman of the Banking Group at the Union League Club of Chicago. He is also an active member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the National Arbitration Forum, and has served as an arbitrator for the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers.
He is the author of the book entitled “Lender Liability: How to Protect Yourself Against Unwarranted Lawsuits” published by Executive Enterprise Publications Co., Inc. in 1988, and is a contributor to “The Banker’s Guide to Multi-Bank Credits and Loan Participations” published by Executive Enterprise Publications Co., Inc. in 1989. Mike is also the author of the chapter on Commercial Loan Restructuring Agreements which appears in IICLE’s book on Illinois Business Documents (1993), the author of the chapter on The Secured Loan Agreement and the Guaranty which appears in IICLE’s book on Illinois Business Documents (1994) and the chapter on Documenting Commercial Loans in IICLE’s book on Illinois Business Documents (1995). He wrote the chapter on Guaranties in IICLE’s new book on Secured Transactions. He is currently a member of the Board of Editors of Matthew Bender’s treatise on Commercial Damages having written Chapters 7 and 8 of that treatise and revised Chapter 20.
He currently authors a monthly column titled “Tales of Whoa!” for the RMA Journal and writes “Flashpoints,” a monthly Internet column on Recent Developments of Interest to Financial Services Industry for the Illinois Institute on Continuing Legal Education which has 1100 subscribers.