Merrick Benn is vice chair of Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP. Equipment finance companies and banks rely on Merrick Benn to provide real-world solutions to everyday business challenges, balancing risk management with helping companies grow.
Merrick’s practice includes the handling of all aspects of equipment financing transactions including substantial experience in structuring, documenting and negotiation of single investor Lease Agreements (true/tax motivated, finance, TRAC and synthetic), secured financings, progress payment financings, syndications, leveraged financings, cross-border transactions, discounting, inventory and receivables financings, asset backed securitizations, project finance and other forms of structured finance. Merrick has nearly 25 years of experience representing some of the most active bank-affiliated and large, independent equipment financing companies in the US in developing standard lease and syndication documentation, including the implementation of titling trusts.
Merrick has extensive experience with:
- Corporate & commercial aircraft
- Locomotives & rail equipment
- Barges & Tankers Trucks and other heavy equipment
- Manufacturing/construction equipment
- Computer hardware & software licenses
- Mining equipment
- Medical equipment
- Modular storage facilities
Merrick’s experience comprises credit enhancements, including guaranties, letters of credit, certificates of deposit, cash collateral, deposit accounts and pledges of certificated and uncertificated securities.
Merrick’s clients often turn to him for counseling on the acquisition and disposition of large loan and lease portfolios comprised of all asset classes.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Represented a group of three Lessors in the financing of fleet of four (4) new Gulfstream Aircraft under a synthetic lease structure for a subsidiary of a publicly traded company. The transaction included progress payments during the manufacturing process of the aircraft.
- Lead counsel to national bank in a series of warehouse loans to NY Fund secured by a pool of rolling stock.
- Represented Agent in syndicated loan facility of fleet of double hulled articulated tug-barges for use in Great Lakes.
- Represented National Bank in acquisition of large portfolio of equipment loans and leases comprised of mixed collateral assets.
- Lead Counsel to owner participant and syndication agent in the creation of titling trust for large pool of over-the-road vehicles and subsequent syndication of sub-interests in trust estate.
Professional & Civic Engagement
- The Associated – Young Leadership Council; Baltimore Junior Association of Commerce, Board Member and Legal Counsel; Equipment Leasing Association.
- Speaker, Lease and Finance Accountants Conference, Washington D.C., September 2012
- Speaker, National Business Aircraft Association, Scottsdale, AZ., February 2012
- Presenter, International Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong, 2010)
- Maryland State Bar Association, Section on Business Law
- American Bar Association, Section on Business Law
Thought Leadership
- Co-author, "Well-Oiled Machines: A Three-Month Analysis of Economic Events Impacting the Transportation Sector", Equipment Finance Advisor, June 2022
- Author, "Preventing and Detecting Fraud in Aircraft Sales and Financing Transactions", Womble Bond Dickinson Client Alert, November 2020
- Co-author, "LIBOR Administrator Signals the Phase-Out of LIBOR to Begin in 2022", Womble Bond Dickinson Client Alert, November 2020
- Professional Author, "The Case for Equipment Leasing: An Appealing Strategy for Cost-Conscious Companies", Focus on WMACCA E-Newsletter, February 2010
- Author, "The Dilemma of Liquidated Damages", LJN’s Equipment Leasing Newsletter, Vol. 24, Number 5, June 2005
- Co-author, "How to Structure Your Next Equipment Lease", with Patrick K. O’Hare, Health Lawyers Weekly, Vol. 2, Issue 36, September 2004
- Author, "Sometimes It’s Not What You Say But How You Say It", The Lending & Leasing Alert, Spring 1999
- Author, "Assessing the Validity of Late Fees in Commercial Contracts", The Ober View, Winter 1999
- Co-author, "Hitachi Forces Lessors to Rethink Form Syndication Documents", with Edward K. Gross, Leader’s Equipment Leasing, June 1999
- Comment, "Successor Liability Strictly Applied: Basic Tenets of Contract Law and Alienability of Property Ignored in Keystone Landfill Decision", Dickson Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, Spring 1997
