A bank is not your partner. It is an institution that lends umbrellas when the sun shines and takes them back when it starts to rain. This is not cynicism—it is a business model.
A loan agreement has two hundred authors on one side and one reader on the other. Guess whose interests each paragraph protects.
The Architecture of Dependence
Credit creates a relationship in which one party has time and the other does not. The bank can wait. You have a payment due on the fifteenth.
This temporal asymmetry translates into negotiating asymmetry. Whoever can walk away from the table dictates terms. Whoever must stay—accepts them.
A lawyer does not reverse this dynamic. But he ensures you play the same game—not a simplified version whose rules you do not know.
Restructuring: The Art of the Possible
Debt you cannot repay does not disappear. It transforms—into negotiations, settlements, new schedules, sometimes into dispute.
The bank prefers to recover some rather than none. You prefer to pay less rather than more. Somewhere between these preferences lies agreement—but only if you know where to look and how to argue.
Restructuring is not asking for mercy. It is presenting the bank with its own interest in a new light.
Collateral: What You Give Before You Get
Mortgage, pledge, guarantee, promissory note—a bank does not believe in promises. It believes in assets it can seize.
Establishing collateral is a decision about what you lose if you fail. Most entrepreneurs make this decision in haste, thinking about what they will gain. A lawyer thinks about what they could lose—and whether that price is acceptable.
Regulators: The Third Player
In a relationship with a bank, there are not two parties. There are three: you, the bank, and the regulator watching representatives of the bank.
Financial supervisory authorities, competition regulators, data protection offices—institutions that can change the rules mid-game. For banks, this is routine. For an entrepreneur—a labyrinth where it is easy to get lost.
What We Offer
We represent businesses and individuals in their relationships with banks—where the individual client stands opposite the institution.
We negotiate restructurings when debt becomes unmanageable. We analyze loan agreements before you sign. We advise on collateral so you know what you are putting at stake.
We also serve the other side—banks and financial institutions that need support in regulatory matters, data protection, electronic payment instruments.
We know both perspectives. This allows us to better defend each one.
The Final Asymmetry
A bank has lawyers on staff. It has risk departments, compliance, collections. It has procedures for every situation and a budget for every dispute.
You have your business to run.
This asymmetry of resources is a fact. But facts can be balanced. A lawyer who knows the rules of the game as well as the bank ensures you are no longer an easy opponent.
And banks—like any institution—prefer easy solutions.
Further reading
- Asymmetric Risk Allocation in Currency Option Structures: A Doctrinal Analysis of Polish Supreme Court Jurisprudence
- The Alchemy of Loss: How Banks Turn Complexity into Profit
- Investment Risk and Institutional Profit: Derivative Instrument Litigation in Comparative Perspective
- Toxic by Design: The Quiet Art of Selling Financial Ruin
