Schuyler, Roche & Crisham, P.C. Large enough to to the job right, small enough to listen
 

Laurie A. Martin Montplaisir
Partner

Vice president of a multimillion-dollar commercial finance corporation before beginning her law career in 1997, Laurie Martin Montplaisir helped entrepreneurs and small-to-mid-market business owners solve cash-flow problems and arrange financing. In addition, she managed the business development and sales activities of five regional vice presidents. Reporting directly to the president, she coordinated and implemented strategies for participation with asset-based lenders and was responsible for conducting financial analyses of credits submitted and for the review and preparation of financing documents. This activity has informed her legal work today in structured finance and asset securitization.

Laurie became interested in law as an undergraduate at Purdue University, where she worked on campus in a legal aid office assisting students with legal issues, instituting and conducting training workshops for members and serving as a liaison between the staff attorney and the student clients. There she learned about various aspects of the law and its application in diverse circumstances. She also had the opportunity to counsel students involved in various legal disputes and enjoyed handling the issues they confronted. Learning how the law applied to a variety of situations fueled her desire to study it.

Areas of Practice
In joining Schuyler, Roche & Crisham, Laurie felt drawn to our firm by the opportunity to work on a wide range of challenging assignments involving asset-backed securitization; mergers and acquisitions; contract preparation, interpretation and administration; as well as more general corporate and transactional matters. Her experience serving business owners and her familiarity with a variety of businesses have given her unique insights that enhance her ability to serve entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized businesses.

Laurie, who joined Schuyler, Roche & Crisham in 1997, is challenged by her work here. She enjoys corporate representation because its objective is to consummate each transaction. Critical to accomplishing a client's goals, she believes, is to negotiate with competing counsel without alienating any parties involved in a transaction.

At Schuyler, Roche & Crisham Laurie has served:

  • a telecommunications holding company in the process of acquiring a factoring company
  • commercial paper conduits in connection with establishing commercial paper facilities for a bank
  • commercial paper conduits in establishing vehicles rated by national rating agencies
  • a distributor selling assets
  • a manufacturer selling assets and confronting the dissension of a minority shareholder
  • a manufacturer selling the stock of three affiliate companies.

Laurie recently has added another dimension to her legal experience and acumen through her involvement in business and employment litigation, experience that has bolstered her understanding of the potential and broader ramifications of the complex transactional and financing work she enjoys. Most recently, Laurie has been engaged in employment litigation matters on behalf of the Village of Gurnee, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace Suburban Bus Division of the Regional Transit Authority.

Achievements
In her relatively short legal career Laurie has handled a variety of important matters, from assisting individual entrepreneurs sell assets of their businesses, to helping owners of an established firm sell millions of dollars in commercial paper. In addition, she has had the unusual experience of working on both corporate and litigation assignments, a duality that brings a unique perspective to her transactional work at Schuyler, Roche & Crisham.

Readily available to answer questions and assist clients in resolving legal issues, Laurie strives to accomplish each client's goals while remaining personable and accessible. She attempts to convey legal concepts free of unnecessary legal jargon and to achieve the desired outcome for the client without overcomplicating the issues.