Financial Services

Our team’s work encompasses regulatory advice, financial litigation, and “a wide range of complex financial transactions, including matters which are national and international in scope. Sources say: ‘A very sharp team. They are shrewd but polite negotiators with a wealth of experience.’”

—Chambers USA 2012

Guiding Financial Services Companies through Challenging Times

Few industries are subject to more intricate regulation than financial services. We understand the markets and the unique challenges facing our clients. Our lawyers have the hands-on experience and deep industry knowledge to guide financial services companies through the evolving regulatory environment and transactional challenges that often characterize today’s global market, as well as help them protect their interests and resolve complex disputes.

We have decades of experience advising clients from all areas of the financial services industry, and these companies comprise a significant portion of our firm’s client portfolio. Our global team works closely with major commercial banks, thrifts, insurance companies, securities firms, investment banks, and investment advisers across Asia, Europe, and the U.S. We partner with our clients to help them identify and pursue the opportunities available in these times of change, while minimizing their exposure to risk.

Integrated Legal Counsel for the Financial Services Industry

From operations and acquisitions to lending and litigation to formation and financing, we provide strategic legal counsel to help financial services companies move their business forward. Our team works on a wide range of mergers and acquisitions – from regional acquisitions to complex, multibillion-dollar combinations of major institutions. We have experience in virtually every type of capital-raising transaction, including novel recapitalizations of troubled institutions.

In addition, we regularly counsel financial institutions on legislative and compliance matters related to the Dodd-Frank Act, JOBS Act, Bank Secrecy Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, UK Bribery Bill, Financial Regulatory Reform Bills, and USA Patriot Act.

We also advise our clients on strategies to minimize the risk of litigation, as a critical component of our transactional and regulatory counsel. However, when litigation cannot be avoided, we represent our clients in effectively resolving complicated, high-stakes disputes. Our lawyers have also dealt with some of the most sensitive and complex enforcement issues arising out of troubled or distressed situations.

We provide strategic legal counsel across all of the critical areas impacting our clients’ business, including:

  • Antitrust
  • Bankruptcy and restructuring
  • Capital markets
  • Employment
  • Finance and commercial lending
  • Fund formation
  • Global banking and payment systems
  • International tax
  • Investment management
  • Legislative counseling
  • Mergers, acquisitions, and ventures
  • Real estate finance
  • Securities litigation
 

Recent Representations

Our recent client successes include:

  • Recognized with Structured Finance and Securitization Deal of the Year at the 2013 IFLR European Awards for the firm's work advising Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch as arranger and lead manager in connection with a €887 million European CMBS for a German multi-family property portfolio owned by the Vitus Group. This is the second year in a row we have won this prestigious award.
  • Awarded China Law & Practice Equity Deal of the Year for our work advising Haitong International, J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, UBS, HSBC, Nomura, Standard Chartered, BOCOM International, and other underwriters in Haitong Securities Co. Ltd.’s US$1.68 billion Hong Kong Initial Public Offering and listing of its H-shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
  • Awarded M&A Advisor’s International Restructuring Deal of the Year. Represented UBS AG, Stamford Branch as the agent on a senior credit facility, which worked with company lenders to restructure and arrange additional financing for PlayPower, an international manufacturer of playground equipment.
  • Handled complex lending and financing transactions, ranging from middle-market loans to billion-dollar-plus financings, for several clients including Barclays, Citigroup, GE Capital, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, UBS, Wells Fargo, and other significant banking clients.

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  • Represented UBS in high-stakes litigation relating to complex financial instruments such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDS), mortgage-backed securities (MBS), auction rate securities (ARS), and other exotic derivatives.
  • Represented Bancorp, Inc., Bank United, Carlyle, Citigroup, Liberty Bank, Guardian, and People’s United Bank in bank mergers and acquisitions, through both unique acquisition structures and FDIC-assisted transactions.
  • Represented financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank Securities, Piper Jaffray, Jefferies & Co., Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and BNP Paribas as underwriters in international equity and debt capital-raising transactions.
  • Represented some of the largest payment systems providers in the world on a wide range of international transactional and regulatory issues, including product development, consumer compliance, and strategic acquisitions.
  • Represented major financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada, and UBS in evaluating acquisition financings for a broad range of private equity firms including Advent, Apollo, Ares, Bain Capital, Francisco Partners, Investcorp, GTCR, KKR, Leonard Green Partners, Oakhill, and Thoma Bravo.
  • Secured a successful ruling to vacate an arbitration award in its entirety for Morgan Stanley.
  • Won a jury trial verdict for Wells Fargo in which a jury awarded judgment in favor of each of our client’s claims of conversion, common counts, and breach of contract, to which our client asserted certain rights and remedies as a secured creditor of the dissolved entity.
  • Guided financial services clients such as Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Societe Generale through investigations and enforcement actions pursued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of Justice, FINRA, and other U.S. and overseas regulators.
  • Handled compliance, discrimination, wage & hour, international employment issues, benefits and executive compensation, harassment, wrongful discharge, misappropriation of trade secrets, and FINRA issues for a vast number of our clients. Currently we are working with Goldman Sachs, UBS, BAML, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, GE, and AIG.

Firsthand Industry Experience

Our team brings together lawyers with significant industry experience, including:

  • Former Assistant Chief of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit of the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ)
  • Former Deputy General Counsel and Acting General Counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision;
  • the former Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision’s Corporate and Securities Division;
  • Former senior lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the Division of Corporate Finance;
  • Former regional trial counsel of the SEC’s Pacific Regional Office;
  • Former Branch Chiefs from the Northeast regional office of the SEC;
  • Former U.S. Head of Litigation and Investigations for UBS; 
  • Former Senior Vice president and Assistant General Counsel for Visa U.S.A. Inc.; and
  • Former Managing Director and head of legal for the investment banking, capital markets, and principal investment areas of Goldman Sachs in Asia ex-Japan.