James Cretella Male • United States of America

James Cretella is an attorney and partner at Blank Rome, a national full-service law firm. He has practiced law for more than 21 years, beginning his career after graduating cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2004. He earned his 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 all sizes and guides transactions through the full life cycle. His experience includes asset-based and cash flow facilities, hybrid financing structures, receivables finance and factoring, notification and non-notification models, actual sale and participation arrangements, lender finance transactions from both lender and borrower perspectives, recurring revenue credit lines for SaaS and subscription-based businesses, supply chain and channel finance, purchase order finance, and Article 9 foreclosure sales. He also supports clients with workouts, intercreditor matters, warehouse lines, and borrower needs requiring tailored structures.

Jim Cretella's work spans industries such as staffing, technology, FinTech, healthcare, real estate, government contracting, transportation, and energy. He assists middle- and upper-middle-market clients with asset-backed lending, larger factoring arrangements, inventory and supply chain finance, and other trade finance products, including off-balance sheet receivable purchase facilities and purchase order financings.

He serves as outside counsel to smaller private lenders, preparing front-end documentation for factoring, ABL, and recurring-revenue transactions, and advising on other legal matters. He additionally represents smaller lenders when negotiating their own credit facilities and in acquiring or selling portfolios.

He is active in the Secured Finance Network and was honored in 2016 as one of its 40 Under 40 recipients. In October, he moderated a lender finance program in Dallas, where discussions focused on structuring, underwriting, risk management, M&A dynamics, and private credit trends. 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's published work includes co-authored articles in The Secured Lender and Financier Worldwide Magazine. He mentors junior associates, previously served on the board of the Adam J. Lewis Academy, and donates regularly to charities, including his church and educational institutions. He enjoys watching baseball and football and will celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary in 2026.