James Cretella

James Cretella is an attorney and partner at Blank Rome, a national law firm offering a wide range of legal services. He has practiced law for more than 21 years, beginning his career after graduating cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2004. He previously earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Villanova University in 2001. He represents banks, private lenders, commercial finance companies, and factors in negotiating and documenting secured finance transactions. He works with lenders of different sizes and supports them through each phase of a transaction. His experience covers asset-based and cash flow facilities, hybrid structures, receivables finance and factoring, notification and non-notification approaches, actual sale and participation models, lender finance transactions from both lender and borrower perspectives, recurring revenue credit lines for SaaS and subscription-driven companies, as well as supply chain, channel, and purchase order finance. He also handles Article 9 foreclosure sales and regularly advises on workouts, intercreditor arrangements, warehouse lines, and borrower needs requiring focused structuring. Jim Cretella's work spans industries including staffing, technology, FinTech, healthcare, real estate, government contracting, transportation, and energy. He works closely with middle- and upper-middle-market clients on asset-backed lending, larger factoring transactions, inventory and supply chain finance, and trade finance structures, including off-balance sheet receivable purchase facilities and purchase order financings. He serves as outside counsel to smaller private lenders, documenting front-end factoring, ABL, and recurring-revenue transactions, while guiding on additional legal matters. He also represents smaller lenders in negotiating their own credit facilities and in portfolio acquisitions and sales. He is active in the Secured Finance Network and was named to its 40 Under 40 list in 2016. In October, he moderated a lender finance session in Dallas that examined structuring, underwriting, risk analysis, M&A activity, and broader market trends in private credit. He also participates in the International Factoring Association and will attend its 2026 conference, where he will co-present the Factoring Essentials class. James Cretella has co-authored articles for The Secured Lender and Financier Worldwide Magazine and mentors junior associates. He previously served on the board of the Adam J. Lewis Academy and donates regularly to charities, including his church and educational institutions. He enjoys baseball and football and will celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary in 2026.