Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Banking
-
May 7, 2013
CIFG Gets Fraud Claims Restored In $275M Goldman Suit
A New York state appeals court on Tuesday revived CIFG Assurance North America Inc.'s claims that Goldman Sachs & Co. and M&T Bank Corp. duped it into backing up a $275 million portfolio of bad home mortgages, reversing a trial court's finding that the bond insurer's due diligence precluded a fraudulent inducement claim.
-
May 7, 2013
ResCap Wins Plan Extension To Keep Ch. 11 Control
Residential Capital LLC on Tuesday won another 30 days to file a Chapter 11 plan without the threat of a rival plan being offered, overcoming a challenge from junior secured noteholders who claim they stand to lose millions if the case continues to be delayed.
-
May 7, 2013
9th Circ. Urged To Revive BofA Debit Card Fee Suit
A putative class of Bank of America NA customers urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive their lawsuit alleging the bank hid service fees for payroll debit cards, arguing that a lower court erroneously ruled that the National Bank Act blocked state law fraud and unfair competition claims.
-
May 7, 2013
2nd Circ. Curbs Market Manipulation Suits In Baron Case
A divided Second Circuit raised the bar Tuesday for market-manipulation suits against defendants who didn't communicate directly with victims of an alleged fraud, tossing federal securities claims against an A.R. Baron & Co. investor accused of aiding the defunct broker’s pump-and-dump scheme.
-
May 7, 2013
Investment Co. Rips Suit Over Chicago's $563M Garage Lease
An investment entity owned by two Morgan Stanley units asked an Illinois court Friday to dismiss a taxpayer group's lawsuit challenging Chicago's $563 million parking garage lease deal with the company, saying that the group lacks standing and that the deal doesn't improperly restrict the city's powers.
-
May 7, 2013
Chartis Partly Escapes Suit Over Losses On $103M Hotel Loan
A New York state judge on Monday tossed part of a suit alleging that Chartis Specialty Insurance Co. failed to cover an investment firm for losses after a Mexican court ruled that bankrupt businesses didn’t have to make payments on a $103 million loan to hotel operators.
-
May 7, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Warburg Pincus, Carlyle, Telefonica
Warburg Pincus stands to gain big when one of its portfolio companies goes public in an anticipated $10 billion initial public offering, while Carlyle plots out its first Japan-focused fund in more than a half-decade to seize on the country's investment boom.
-
May 7, 2013
CFPB's 1st Criminal Referral Targets $2M Debt Relief Scam
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a New York debt settlement firm with defrauding over 1,200 customers hobbled by credit card debt in a $2.2 million scheme that also marked the first criminal referral from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
-
May 7, 2013
Porter Hedges Nabs M&A Pro From Seyfarth Shaw
Houston law firm Porter Hedges LLP has landed a former Seyfarth Shaw LLP partner who specializes in corporate counseling, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, health care, and finance, the firm said Monday.
-
May 6, 2013
Long-Running AmEx, Citi Collusion Suit Nears Finish Line
American Express Co., Citigroup Inc. and Discover Financial Services plotted to change their customer agreements to stop consumer class actions against them, a plaintiff’s lawyer said Monday, wrapping up their case in the lengthy antitrust trial against the credit card giants in New York federal court.
-
May 6, 2013
ResCap Creditors Fight CFO Testimony In RMBS Trial
Unsecured creditors of mortgage servicer Residential Capital LLC on Monday urged the New York bankruptcy judge overseeing its Chapter 11 proceedings to bar its chief financial officer from testifying at an upcoming trial over a $9 billion residential mortgage-backed securities deal.
-
May 6, 2013
Rakoff Ruling In $1B BofA Case May Halt DOJ Hot Streak
Prosecutors have seized on an obscure 1989 law to launch a series of splashy cases against banks in recent years, but a prominent New York federal judge with a penchant for scrutinizing government actions could soon reverse the trend in a $1 billion mortgage fraud suit against Bank of America Corp.
-
May 6, 2013
Prudential's $200M Barclays MBS Suit Returns To State Court
A New Jersey federal judge on Monday remanded to state court a lawsuit alleging Barclays Bank PLC and others duped Prudential Insurance Co. of America into buying $200 million in residential mortgage-backed securities, finding that the case is purely a state matter.
-
May 6, 2013
BofA, US Bank Lose Bid To Toss RMBS Class Action
A New York federal judge on Monday rejected a motion from Bank of America NA and U.S. Bank NA to dismiss a putative class action with breach of contract claims alleging they failed to protect investors in their role as trustees of residential mortgage-backed securities.
-
May 6, 2013
Repurchase Is Ambac's Only Out In $856M MBS Case: Merrill
Ambac Financial Group Inc.'s bond insurance unit can't force Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. affiliate to pay for $856 million in mortgage-backed securities because a loan repurchase is its only remedy, Merrill Lynch told a New York state judge Monday.
-
May 6, 2013
Investors Get Chance To Revive Antitrust Claims In Libor MDL
The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation accusing Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other top banks of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate agreed Friday to give investors one last chance to make their antitrust allegations stick.
-
May 6, 2013
MBIA, BofA Strike Major $1.7B MBS Settlement
Bank of America Corp. agreed Monday to pay $1.7 billion to settle claims from the bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp. over the bank’s allegedly faulty mortgage-backed securities, a major deal that ends litigation for two companies scarred by the 2008 financial crisis.
-
May 6, 2013
$615M MBS Suit Aims To Rewrite Deal's Terms, Deutsche Says
Deutsche Bank Structured Products sought Friday to dismiss a suit accusing it of misrepresenting the risk of $615 million pool of mortgage loans underlying residential mortgage-backed securities, arguing trustee HSBC Bank USA NA didn't give it an adequate chance to correct possible issues before filing suit.
-
May 6, 2013
ResCap Sues UMB, Wells Fargo Over Lien Value
Residential Capital LLC on Friday sued UMB Bank NA, Wells Fargo Bank NA and a group of junior secured noteholders holding $2 billion in claims against the estate over a dispute concerning the value of their liens securing certain bonds.
-
May 6, 2013
MasterCard, Visa To Slash Fees In French Antitrust Settlement
MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. have agreed to lower certain interbank fees in an effort to allay France's competition concerns over the fees, the country's antitrust authority said Monday.
Expert Analysis
-
An Information Security Preparedness Checklist
The Federal Trade Commission's recent CBR Systems Inc. settlement underscores how important it is for companies to honor the promises made in their privacy policies through comprehensive security planning. And yet even companies constantly subject to attacks, like financial services institutions, can find it difficult to have an internal dialogue regarding cybersecurity as a business process. This checklist can help encourage such dialogue, say attorneys with Ballard Spahr LLP.
-
FATCA Insight: Grappling With Cross-Border Payments
Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, U.S. companies will have to withhold 30 percent of payments to foreign companies from U.S. sources under agreements signed after 2013, even in cases where there would not otherwise be any withholding tax. From the standpoint of a U.S. developer, the focus should be on trying to get a foreign lender — such as a foreign bank, private equity fund or insurance company — or other payee to provide proof that it is exempted from FATCA withholding, say Kelly Kogan and John Marciano of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.
-
A Potentially Superior Way To Secure Lease Obligations
While the structure of a letter of credit is more complex than a traditional security deposit, a letter of credit could ultimately prove to be a superior form of security for a landlord over a traditional security deposit and is something a commercial landlord should consider, depending on the subject tenant and the complexity of the underlying transaction, say William Porter and Timothy Haughee of Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor & Reed PA.
-
Junior Lienholders And Cross-Collateralized Loans
For practitioners representing lenders and borrowers, the California Court of Appeal ruling in R.E. Loans LLC v. Investors Warranty of America Inc. presents several important lessons. First and foremost, lenders who want security for multiple loans secured by a single deed of trust must recognize that, absent an agreement to the contrary, each loan will be treated separately with regard to the rights of junior lienholders, says Mark Madnick of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
-
What You Should Know About The New Trade Secrets Laws
Although two new trade secret laws — the Trade Secret Clarification Act and the Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act — significantly increase the risks faced by an employee or other person who takes an organization’s trade secrets, neither the government nor the organization will succeed in protecting those secrets unless the organization takes appropriate measures to protect them before they are stolen, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.
-
Illinois Hops On Springing Guaranty Bandwagon
In Bank of America NA v. Freed et al., the Illinois Appellate Court upheld a “springing guaranty,” providing that an otherwise partial loan guaranty would become full recourse to the guarantors if the borrower opposed the lender’s exercise of certain of its default remedies. With this decision, Illinois continues a nationwide trend enforcing “bad boy carve-outs” in nonrecourse mortgage loans, says R. Jeffrey Smith of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
-
Know The Standard Of FDIC Liability For Community Banks
More than 400 financial institutions have failed since September 2008, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in losses to the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund. The FDIC has filed a total of 41 professional liability lawsuits against former bank directors and officers of failed institutions. These developments warrant close attention from community bankers, since a majority of the complaints have involved small or medium-size banks, say attorneys with BuckleySandler LLP.
-
Protecting Attorney-Client Privilege: Learn From Halifax
A Florida federal court's recent decision in U.S. v. Halifax Hospital Medical Center demonstrates that organizations need new resolve in order to protect emails with in-house counsel and the compliance department. While this case arose in the health care context, its lessons extend to any organization in a heavily regulated industry, including banking and insurance, that hopes to protect communications with in-house counsel and compliance personnel, say attorneys with Squire Sanders LLP.
-
10 Insights Into FINRA Dispute Resolution
Although the facts of an individual case and the corresponding law will always be the most important factors in determining the outcome of any matter, the difference between an efficient and successful Financial Industry Regulatory Authority experience and an unsatisfying one can be found in some practical considerations that may not be readily apparent in FINRA’s rules, says Joseph Pohl of Reed Smith LLP.
-
How 1st Circ. Infused Del. Law Decision With Realism
What stands out in the analysis by the First Circuit in a recent shareholder derivative action — Union de Empleados de Muelles de Puerto Rico PRSSA Welfare Plan v. UBS Financial Services Inc. of Puerto Rico — is its realism about human motivations and conduct. Practitioners advising public corporations seeking to form truly “independent” boards should take notice — for certain litigators are doing so, says Fred Isquith of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP.