It is an unfortunate fact of life for those of us who represent lenders that our bills are paid by the people on the other side of the table — the borrowers. While this is the custom, it adds extra weight to the usual concern about legal fees, since it means the borrower is paying for attorneys whose jobs are, in large part, to oppose their interests.

As a result, we often get suggestions from borrowers on how to keep our legal costs down, since it is our practice to have partners involved in all of our bank engagements, no matter how small. Two suggestions we often get are: (i) let borrower’s counsel prepare the documents, and (ii) have paralegals do the work.