Jody L. Petras

How Jody Helps Clients

Jody has more than 30 years of experience as a paralegal, working across several areas, including general corporate, mergers and acquisitions, securities and lending.

Jody excels at preparing complex resolutions approving mergers/acquisitions, lending, real estate and low-income housing tax credit transactions as well as preparing ancillary documents for these transactions. She also assists with due diligence reviews, including ordering and reviewing lien searches and preparing schedules for principal transaction agreements. She carefully tracks open items and has coordinated and assisted with many transactional closings.

In addition to transactional work, Jody also assists with general corporate matters such as entity formations, preparation and filing sub-chapter S elections, preparing state forms for mergers (including plans of merger), conversions, dissolutions/withdrawals and amendments in all 50 states. She is able to handle large-scale projects very efficiently and effectively. Jody performs meticulous minute book and stock ledger reviews and assists clients with general corporate governance and compliance matters.

Jody also has an extensive securities background. Prior to joining Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Jody served as a trading assistant on a trading desk for a mutual fund company. She has experience in developing board meeting minutes for mutual fund companies and drafting prospectuses and proxy statements for mutual fund companies and assisting with the SEC review and comment process.

She also has several years of experience assisting with municipal bond transactions. She has handled the preparation of ancillary documents including documents for filing with the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and resolving comments with the DCED; coordinating closings.

Additionally, she has assisted in the representation of lending institutions offering SBA and USDA guaranteed loans by conducting due diligence reviews, preparing loan documentation in accordance with requirements established by the SBA and USDA, interfacing with loan officers, borrowers' counsel and title companies to finalize loan documentation, and clearing title to real property, preparing and filing UCCs, preparing lease-related documents and mortgages and conducting loan closings.

What Clients Can Expect

Jody is a self-starter with a professional and positive attitude. She is very responsive to client needs and concerns, and clients can expect clear and direct communication. Jody has excellent problem solving skills and proactively takes the initiative to research and identify possible issues and offer solutions. She works well under pressure and pays great attention to detail.

Outside the Office

Jody enjoys family, friends, art, music, gardening, civil war history, kayaking and volunteering at a local nursing home. She supports various causes such as animal shelters and local food banks.

Proof Points

M&A and lending experience

• Provides assistance with due diligence (including lien searches), prepares closing agendas, schedules to principal agreements, authorizing resolutions, ancillary documents and closing certificates, and assists with closings.

General corporate experience

• Preparation of state forms and related documentation for entity formations (i.e., articles of incorporation, certificates of organization, certificates of limited partnership, fictitious name filings, bylaws, organizational minutes, subchapter "S" election forms, Form SS-4 and PA Form 100) and for foreign qualifications, dissolutions/withdrawals, mergers, conversions and dissolutions in all 50 states.
• Provides assistance with entity management and compliance matters (e.g.: preparation of annual minutes, coordinates filing of annual reports, reviews minute books for compliance; preparation of stock certificates and stock ledgers).
• Experience with large-scale corporate projects (e.g.: preparing assumed name forms, withdrawal forms and qualification forms for multiple entities in multiple jurisdictions).

Special projects

• Six-month secondment for a public company assisting with proxy statement; assisted with on-site review of bank documents over a several month period in connection with large bank divestiture.