Rebecca O. Fruchtman

Rebecca Fruchtman is counsel in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and a member of the Banking & Finance practice. Her practice focuses on the global trade finance space, including supply chain finance, open account, letters of credit, structured letters of credit and risk-distributed trade transactions, and asset-based financing transactions—both domestic and cross-border.  With respect to supply chain finance matters at Mayer Brown, Rebecca spearheaded the global rollout of a trade payables financing program which entailed oversight and supplier set-up and legal due diligence in some 15 jurisdictions and has structured, documented and executed a wide range of seller-centric receivables and drafts/bills of exchange sale programs.

Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Rebecca served as general counsel to Bank of America’s Business Capital line of business (US Central Region) on asset-based lending matters and as counsel to Bank of America’s Global Transaction Services Global Trade and Supply Chain Line of Business (2012 to 2017) where Rebecca worked extensively with the business on structuring, documenting, negotiating and providing risk-mitigation strategies for supply chain finance transactions. In this role, Rebecca also advised the Bank on the banking regulatory aspects of supply chain finance.  

Rebecca has spoken routinely on letter of credit topics at the annual International Banking Law & Practice conferences and actively participates in the global banking association BAFT IFSA – particularly in respect of trade digitization and supply chain finance accounting issues – having spoken at BAFT conferences and participated in BAFT working groups, most notably in respect of efforts to amend the Federal E-Sign Act to enable electronic drafts and bills of exchange. Rebecca co-authored the in-depth Mayer Brown client alert on the UN Convention for the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade published in May 2020, and moderated a panel on the Convention in November 2020 as part of the Mayer Brown Global Receivables and Supply Chain Finance webinar series. That panel included a representative from UNICITRAL and other of the principal architects and proponents of the Convention. 

In addition, Rebecca has a deep bench of experience in all facets of distressed situations, including extensive involvement in some of the largest bankruptcy cases filed in the United States. Her experience spans the airline, power/utility, alternative energy, automotive, chemical, steel, technology and distressed real estate sectors. She served on the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) from 2013 to 2016 and won the TMA Chicago Pro Bono Engagement of the Year award in 2016. Rebecca also served a two-year term as membership relations director of the American Bankruptcy Institute Committee on Commercial Fraud and was an associate editor of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal. Rebecca’s pro bono work also includes advising the United Nations (UNCITRAL) in its efforts to analyze and remove barriers to financing faced by small and mid-sized enterprises in emerging markets.

Rebecca is AV Peer Review-rated by Martindale-Hubbell.