Patrick E. Mears

Patrick concentrated his practice in distressed real estate, insolvency, workouts and restructurings, commercial finance, securitizations, and creditors' rights. He represented financial institutions as individual creditors and as members of loan syndicates in matters throughout the state of Michigan and the remainder of the country. Although his primary practice was representing financial institutions as secured and unsecured creditors, he also represented debtors and creditors committees in bankruptcy cases and out-of-court workouts.

Patrick has been an elected fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and an elected member of the American Law Institute. He has been listed in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America', Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers, Michigan Super Lawyers' 2006-2012and Who's Who in America. Patrick is formerly the chairperson of the Real Estate Financing Group of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and has served as chair of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the Michigan State Bar's Business Law Section.

Patrick has been a frequent speaker at national and local bar associations and client groups on issues involving distressed real estate, insolvency, creditors' rights, commercial finance, and securitizations and has published numerous books and articles on these issues, including a work published in 2013 entitled "Receiverships in Michigan." He has been a contributing author to Collier's Bankruptcy Practice Manual published by LEXIS/NEXIS, and has authored the treatises Bankruptcy Law and Practice and Michigan's Revised Article 9 of the UCC, both of which are published by the University of Michigan Press, and is the lead author of Strategies for Secured Creditors (Second Edition), a treatise published by the American Law Institute-CLE. Patrick also has published a blog on issues arising in workouts, restructurings and bankruptcies in the automotive industry in the Bankruptcy Law Center of LEXIS/NEXIS. During the fall of 2014, Patrick taught a course on commercial and real estate law as a visiting professor at Lazarski University in Warsaw, Poland.

Patrick graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1976. His undergraduate degree is also from the University of Michigan. Patrick is admitted to practice in the states of Michigan and New York.