John F. (Jef) Wolter is the President of the Firm and resident in the Hartford office. His practice primarily focuses on the commercial finance and healthcare areas. In the finance area, Mr. Wolter concentrates in the transactional representation of banks, financial institutions, finance companies, small business investment companies, and other lenders in all aspects of commercial, asset-based, acquisition and mezzanine financings, including “workout” and asset recovery situations. He has extensive experience in the representation of secured lenders to ESOP's as well as healthcare, security alarm, telecommunication, maritime, franchise, government contractor and other "specialized industry" borrowers. He has represented lead and participant lenders in syndications, participations and other multiple lender loan transactions. He has also represented the issuers of stand by and direct pay letters of credit and other financial guaranties in connection with bond and tax exempt financings. He has extensive experience in the representation of lenders in connection with foreclosure, bankruptcy, receivership, and similar proceedings involving nursing homes, assisted living and other healthcare facilities.
In his healthcare practice, Mr. Wolter represents health care facilities and providers in certificate of need and other administrative proceedings as well as fraud and abuse, financing, merger and acquisition, corporate governance, fraud and abuse, reimbursement, rate setting, licensing and certification matters. Mr. Wolter has particular expertise in the representation of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, acute-care and specialty hospitals, freestanding ambulatory surgery and imaging facilities, rehabilitation hospitals, and ambulance and medical transportation companies. He has been involved in numerous transactions involving the acquisition, sale, merger or consolidation of health care facilities and providers, including hospitals, skilled nursing and residential care facilities, ambulatory surgical centers, and behavioral health facilities. He also has provided counsel in connection with the establishment of various joint ventures and affiliations among health care providers. Most notably, he served as legal counsel to the purchaser in Connecticut’s first ever conversion of a non-profit acute care hospital to for-profit status.
Mr. Wolter is a graduate of Saint Anselm College (B.A., History, summa cum laude) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., cum laude). He is a member of the American, Connecticut and New Hampshire Bar Associations as well as the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys, the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies and the American Health Lawyers Association.