Practice Areas
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Banking
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May 25, 2012
JPMorgan Unit Faces $293M Suit Over MBS Loan Buyback Deal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its unit EMC Mortgage LLC were sued Friday for $293 million by a securitization trust that had financed the purchase of residential mortgage loans EMC had sold, claiming EMC violated an agreement to repurchase shoddy loans.
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May 25, 2012
Community Bank's Libor Antitrust Suit Targets BofA, Others
A Wisconsin-based community bank launched a putative class action Friday against Bank of America NA, Citibank NA and JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, alleging that their manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate cost community banks between $300 and $500 million annually.
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May 25, 2012
Gupta Likely Source Of P&G Tips, Ex-Galleon Trader Says
A former Galleon Group LLC trader testified Friday in the trial of Rajat Gupta, the most prominent defendant ensnared in the government’s insider trading crackdown, that Gupta may have used his role on the board of Procter & Gamble Co. to supply the hedge fund with illegal tips.
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May 25, 2012
Highland Affiliates Want Out Of UBS' $686M CDO Suit
Two affiliates of private fund firm Highland Capital Management LP asked a New York state judge Friday to dismiss them from a $686 million fraud lawsuit by UBS AG that claims Highland and its affiliates tricked UBS into restructuring a debt securities agreement.
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Nixes KeyCorp ERISA Case Over Lack Of Injury
A KeyCorp 401(k) plan participant who sold company stock while its price was allegedly artificially inflated suffered no out-of-pocket loss and has no standing to sue, the Sixth Circuit said Friday, declining to revive a putative class action.
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May 25, 2012
Class Says JPMorgan Made Them Buy Excessive Flood Coverage
A class of homeowners sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. affiliates JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Chase Insurance Agency Inc. in New York on Thursday, accusing them of forcing homeowners to buy more flood insurance than they needed.
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May 25, 2012
Top Banks Look To Take Raser's Short-Selling Suit Federal
A group of major investment banks — including Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LP — are seeking to duke it out with Raser Technologies Inc. in Georgia federal court over allegations that naked short selling led to the energy company's stint in bankruptcy.
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May 25, 2012
WaMu Noteholders Still Want In On $10B Deutsche Bank Suit
A group of more than two dozen Washington Mutual Bank NA noteholders on Friday asked the D.C. Circuit to review a decision rebuffing them from intervening in a Deutsche Bank AG unit's $10 billion suit over allegedly shoddy mortgages WaMu issued before regulators seized it.
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May 25, 2012
Freddie Mac Can't Duck Suit Over Subprime Exposure
A federal judge on Friday declined to dismiss a proposed securities class action brought by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System against Freddie Mac over the housing entity's alleged failure to disclose its true subprime exposure, saying the plaintiffs properly stated their claims.
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May 25, 2012
FTC's Credit Report Notices Covered By FCRA, Judge Says
A Washington federal judge has found that the Federal Trade Commission's enforcement of credit score disclosure requirements was within its authority under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, despite the National Automobile Dealers Association's challenge to the rules, the government said Thursday.
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May 25, 2012
JPMorgan CEO Tenuously Set To Testify In Congress In June
The Senate Banking Committee on Friday announced that JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon was set to testify about his bank's surprise $2 billion trading loss in early June, but Dimon reportedly has turned down the request and will appear at some later point.
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May 25, 2012
SEC Advises High Court To Leave Madoff Investor Suits Alone
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday advised the U.S. Supreme Court not to review cases challenging the methods of the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which would allow the trustee to start distributing roughly $9 billion to victims.
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May 25, 2012
CFTC Hits Coventry Asset Managers With Forex Fraud Claims
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is taking civil enforcement action in Washington federal court against Coventry Asset Managers LLC for fraud in foreign currency exchange trading, the CFTC announced Friday.
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May 25, 2012
Ron Paul's Fed Audit Bill To Get Full House Vote In July
Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul's quest to audit the Federal Reserve will get a big push forward when the full U.S. House of Representatives votes on it in July, a key House Republican announced Friday.
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May 25, 2012
Weil Reps Lehman On $1.6B Archstone Stake Buy
Bankrupt New York investment banking giant Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. has acquired the remaining 26.5 percent stake in Colorado-based residential real estate investment trust Archstone from Barclays PLC and Bank of America Corp. for $1.6 billion, Lehman said Friday.
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May 25, 2012
BofA Told To Turn Over Even More Docs To MBIA
A New York state judge ordered Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide units Thursday to turn over more documents about its internal fraud investigations to monoline insurer MBIA Inc., rejecting Countrywide's gripe that it had already produced 12 million pages of documents.
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May 24, 2012
Judge OKs Lehman Ex-Execs' $90M Payout To Investors
A New York federal judge on Thursday approved a $90 million settlement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executives and a proposed class of Lehman investors, after previously balking at the settlement, which will be paid by insurance policies while letting directors and officers off the hook.
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May 24, 2012
Goldman Commits $40B To Clean Energy Over 10 Years
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to finance $40 billion in renewable-energy projects over the next decade, an area it considers at a “momentous point” of growth, the investment bank said Thursday.
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May 24, 2012
BofA Puts NJ Office Complex Up For Sale
Just weeks after selling off its Charlotte, N.C., trading floor, Bank of America Corp. has started shopping a 12-building, 1.7-million-square-foot New Jersey office park, the latest move in the bank's portfolio reduction campaign, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
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May 24, 2012
Ex-SEC Atty Barred From Agency After Repping Stanford
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday barred the former head of enforcement in its Fort Worth, Texas, office from appearing before the commission for one year for privately representing alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford after participating in the SEC's investigations into the financier.
Expert Analysis
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Avoiding FCPA Prosecution For Employee Conduct
Contrasting the enforcement positions in the recent Morgan Stanley and Noble Corp. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, a few factors stand out as potentially influencing when companies will be held responsible for the actions of their employees, and when such actions will be viewed as “rogue” conduct, say attorneys with Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
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Jeopardized By Cherryland: Bankruptcy Remote Financings
If the Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Cherryland Mall Limited Partnership is widely followed, an array of unanticipated consequences may arise that could have profound effects on the debt capital markets generally and on single purpose entity borrowers in particular, say attorneys with Fox Rothschild LLP.
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Facing Greater Fraudulent Transfer Liability
A recent Eleventh Circuit decision in the bankruptcy case of homebuilder Tousa Inc. and its affiliates undermines the enforceability of upstream guarantees given by subsidiaries for the benefit of a parent borrower. To protect against its effects, lenders will need to ensure that subsidiary guarantors are solvent or will tangibly benefit from loans to the parent corporations, say Hugh McCullough and Bradley Duncan of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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Best Practices For Corporate Social Responsibility
As with many industries, the legal services industry has adapted to the demand for sustainability practices. An effective Corporate Social Responsibility program will manifest itself in all strategic planning, from best firm employee practices and environmental sustainability to providing legal services, recruiting and retention of employees, business development, marketing and philanthropy, says Howard Dakoff of Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC.
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Opening The Door For Foreign Control Of US Banks
The increased participation in the U.S. banking market by foreign banks in recent years can be expected to increase more rapidly following the Federal Reserve's May 9 approval of controlling investments in a U.S. bank by three Chinese entities, say Gerard Comizio, Kevin Petrasic and Helen Lee of Paul Hastings LLP.
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Seeking Clarity On Credit Bidding
Does a secured creditor have an absolute right to credit bid? With the U.S. Supreme Court recently hearing oral arguments in RadLAX Gateway Hotel LLC v. Amalgamated Bank, there may soon be an answer to this question — one of the hottest debates in bankruptcy law in recent years, say Lisa Herrington and Douglas Gooding of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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En Garde: Prepare Yourself For The CFPB
Although much remains uncertain surrounding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, businesses should, at a minimum, have a basic understanding of the CFPB’s authority, what it has already done, and what it sets out to do, say Evangeline Heppenstall and Chad Pinson of Baker Botts LLP.
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Keys To Co-Lending Agreements In Commercial RE
Co-lending arrangements have long been used by commercial real estate lenders looking to spread risk, increase spreads, improve returns, free up capital and gain other advantages from utilizing participations, syndications, A/B loans and other co-lending vehicles. Practioners should keep in mind a few key considerations when crafting current co-lending agreements, says Hilary Metra Gevondyan of DLA Piper.
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Pottage V. FSA — A Welcome Decision For UK Bank Execs
The recent U.K. Upper Tribunal decision in Pottage v. Financial Services Authority makes clear that senior managers working in business and risk management functions are expected to act reasonably on the timing of reviews and the appropriate responses to business issues — and should not be held personally culpable in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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TARP Auctions: Considerations For PE Fund Managers
A private fund planning to purchase Troubled Asset Relief Program preferred stock auctioned by the U.S. Treasury should keep in mind the regulatory implications of owning equity in a bank holding company, say Edwin del Hierro and Julie Kunetka of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.