Roger S. Chari

Partner

  • Roger S. Chari
  • Phone: +1 212 692 1011

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    1540 Broadway
    New York, NY 10036-4086
    USA

Roger S. Chari focuses his practice on a wide variety of secured lending and other finance transactions, primarily for lenders and underwriters but also for borrowers and issuers. He structures, negotiates, reviews and closes secured finance transactions for a wide range of domestic and foreign lending clients in different secured lending markets, both in and out of bankruptcy. Most recently, Mr. Chari has become active in the burgeoning digital assets space.

Mr. Chari’s experience started in all aspects of real estate collateral for syndicated bank finance and underwritten bond deals. That practice evolved to cover inventory and receivables, equipment, intellectual property, cash and securities accounts, aircraft, railcars, ships, precious metals, insurance policies and other specialized collateral. A significant part of Mr. Chari’s practice encompasses swaps and derivatives for financial institutions, primarily on interest rate transactions but also for currency and commodity trades.

Most of these assets can be tokenized on a blockchain in a digital age. Mr. Chari has written and spoken on the coming changes to the banking and UCC rules that will allow this to happen. Mr. Chari recently built on his experience to document a loan in stablecoins between crypto native companies.

Mr. Chari is a member of the Duane Morris Digital Assets and Blockchain Group, a multidisciplinary group of Duane Morris partners providing a full suite of services to clients in the cryptocurrency, digital asset, and blockchain industries, both domestically and internationally.

Mr. Chari is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a summa cum laude graduate of Rutgers University.

Admissions

  • Massachusetts
  • New Jersey
  • New York

Education

  • Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude
  • Rutgers University, B.A., summa cum laude

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Partner, 2019-present

  • LeClairRyan PLLC
    - Partner

  • Hahn & Hessen LLP
    - Partner

  • Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
    - Associate

  • Cahill Gordon & Reindel
    - Associate

Representative Matters

  • Represented top 15 U.S. bank as lead arranger and administrative agent in a $90 million senior secured credit facility, consisting of a term loan and a revolver, with two top five money center banks as co-syndication agents and another top 25 bank as participant lender.

  • Represented CIBC Bank USA in a secured financing to CSM Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser and portfolio company of private equity fund Estancia Capital Partners.

  • Represented the New York office of a major private bank in $22.5 million of term and committed revolving loans, supported by a borrowing base, to a trust for one of its private wealth clients, a high-profile celebrity, secured by three life insurance policies issued by three different life insurance companies.

  • Represented the San Francisco office of a major private bank in a $40 million demand discretionary loan, supported by a borrowing base, to an estate planning trust for one of its private wealth clients to enable the trust to obtain four life insurance policies issued by three different life insurance companies to further the client’s estate planning and business succession goals.

  • Represented the Greenwich, Connecticut office of a major private bank in making two term loans and two demand discretionary loans to two trusts for one of its very high net worth clients secured by six life insurance policies issued by five different life insurance companies; the loans were supported by a borrowing base, and enabled the bank to refinance the loans that the client had with another bank, and convinced the client to move the investment and banking relationship.

  • Represented the Greenwich, Connecticut office of a major private bank in four term loans, supported by a borrowing base, and demand discretionary loans to two trusts for one of its private wealth clients secured by life insurance policies.

  • Represented a major private bank in a group of five term and demand discretionary loans, supported by a borrowing base, totaling $34 million to an insurance trust for one of its private wealth clients secured by 13 life insurance policies issued by six different life insurance companies.

  • Acted as counsel to the administrative agent and sole lead arranger on behalf of a national bank to document, negotiate and close a $52 million syndicated cash flow credit facility for the management buyout of a travel and entertainment company.

Selected Publications

Media Hits

Selected Speaking Engagements

  • Speaker, "Doing Deals in the COVID-19 Era Practical Considerations for Electronic Signatures and Remote Notarization," Duane Morris Webinar, April 3, 2020
  • Speaker, "Managing and Preparing for LIBOR Transition: Practical Guide," The Knowledge Group Webcast, February 26, 2020