Richard E. Lear

Richard E. Lear is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. Mr. Lear practiced in Chapter 11 cases for over 40 years and currently focuses his practice exclusively on reviewing and negotiating legal opinions addressing bankruptcy-remote structures, substantive consolidation and true sales. In doing so, Mr. Lear works closely with structured finance attorneys and real estate finance attorneys in many of Holland & Knight's offices throughout the country to address issues in forming special purpose vehicles (SPVs). He also collaborates with drafting and reviewing reasoned legal opinions on substantive consolidation and on true sales in connection with commercial mortgaged-backed securities (CMBS) and other real estate finance transactions, as well as with structured finance transactions, including in connection with the securitization of financial assets.

Mr. Lear has on many occasions made presentations on true sale and nonconsolidation opinions and on other bankruptcy topics at various seminars sponsored by local, regional and state bar associations and national forums such as the Working Group on Legal Opinions.

From 2009 to 2014, Mr. Lear was an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, where he taught a course in real estate bankruptcy in Georgetown's Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate Program.

Mr. Lear served as a law clerk to the Honorable Martin V. B. Bostetter Jr., Chief Judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, from 1983-1985.