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May 24, 2013
Blank Rome Hit With $25M Malpractice Suit Over Conflict
Blank Rome LLP was hit with a $25 million malpractice suit in New York state court Friday by a former client who claiming the firm represented her in divorce proceedings while simultaneously representing her husband's employer, Morgan Stanley, leading to a conflict and a mishandling of the divorce.
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May 24, 2013
JPML Head Says New Mix Of Cases Makes Panel More Picky
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has rejected a higher percentage of centralization requests in recent years, a trend the head of the panel told Law360 was due in part to a rise in patent cases and other types of litigation he said were more likely to center on individual issues.
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May 24, 2013
US-China Audit Truce Offers Weak Shield For Investors
A Friday agreement allowing U.S. regulators to seek documents from Chinese accounting firms targeted for enforcement actions marked an improvement in relations between the two countries, but analysts say investors will remain vulnerable to fraud until U.S. regulators can perform regular audit reviews in China.
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May 24, 2013
First Data Lambastes $7B Interchange Fee Antitrust Deal
Global payment processing company First Data Corp. moved Friday to opt out of the $7 billion interchange fee class action settlement, saying that it shouldn't be forced to give up its right to bring antitrust claims against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.
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May 24, 2013
Spain's Bankia Nets $883M In Sale Of Florida Bank
Bankia SA, the Spanish lender nationalized last May, said Friday it had sold a small Florida bank to Chilean bank BCI for $883 million, the latest sign of a shifting balance of power between European and Latin American lenders.
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May 24, 2013
Fiduciary Duty To IPO Clients Hangs By Thread In NY Appeal
In taking claims that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fleeced a now-defunct toy maker by undervaluing its $178 million initial public offering, legal experts say New York's top court has the chance to put to rest doubts over the notion that bankers owe a fiduciary duty to clients dipping into equities markets.
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May 24, 2013
Visa, MasterCard Sue Opponents Of $7B Swipe Fee Deal
Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and several major lenders, including Bank of America NA, struck back Friday at retail trade associations objecting to a proposed $7.25 billion settlement over allegedly excessive credit card fees, asking a New York federal judge in a complaint to find their fee-setting practices lawful.
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May 24, 2013
US Bank Sued Over Robosigning, Mismanaged RMBS Trusts
Banks and asset managers in Missouri, Arkansas and South Carolina have sued U.S. Bank NA for allegedly mismanaging 28 residential mortgage-backed securities trusts by ignoring robosigning practices that ultimately derailed their investments, according to a complaint removed to Missouri federal court on Friday.
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May 24, 2013
High Court's Morrison Ruling Keeps Attys Guessing
Nearly three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd. is still sending tremors through the securities bar and sowing confusion among lower courts on the reach of a key fraud law, attorneys say.
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May 24, 2013
US Trustee, Banks Slam AMR Bankruptcy Exit Plan
The U.S. trustee in AMR Corp.’s bankruptcy Friday objected to the airliner’s disclosure statement and proposed reorganization plan, claiming the plan contained an improper $20 million severance payment to outgoing CEO Tom Horton and impermissibly covered certain creditors’ legal fees.
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May 24, 2013
Law360 Names 10 FCPA Powerhouse Firms
Many savvy law firms boast their expertise in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, but an elite group of 10 firms have emerged as true leaders in the fast-growing field, earning them a spot on Law360’s inaugural list of FCPA Powerhouses.
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May 24, 2013
Citibank Seeks Clarity On Argentina Bond Injunction
Citibank NA on Thursday asked a federal judge to clarify that it is not forced to comply with a November order that barred the Argentine government from paying holders of its bonds in a dispute with a U.S. hedge fund.
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May 24, 2013
Schumer Says Sprint-SoftBank Deal Might Aid Chinese Hackers
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday joined a crescendo of concerns over the national security risks tied to SoftBank Corp.’s proposed $20.1 billion Sprint Nextel Corp. takeover, telling federal regulators the transaction could open the U.S. government to Chinese hackers.
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May 24, 2013
Judge Trims Suit Blaming BB&T For Insurer's Takeover
A Florida federal judge Friday trimmed a suit brought by First Commercial Holdings Group Corp. accusing North Carolina bank Branch Banking & Trust Co. of misrepresenting the value of FCH's accounts at the bank, leading to regulators seizing FCH's insurance unit.
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May 24, 2013
Jury Convicts Bank Of Commonwealth Insiders In $71M Fraud
A Virginia federal jury Friday convicted former Bank of the Commonwealth CEO Edward Woodard and three others for their roles in a scheme that hid the now defunct bank's troubled assets, all but closing a case that defrauded the government of $71 million and led to the bank's 2011 failure.
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May 24, 2013
CFTC Declines To Cap Its Powers Against Disruptive Trading
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday said it has rejected suggestions that it curtail a new interpretive order designed to combat disruptive trading practices.
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May 24, 2013
Patriot Coal Can Subpoena Docs For Peabody Spinoff Probe
A Missouri bankruptcy judge on Wednesday gave Patriot Coal Corp. the green light to subpoena documents from Morgan Stanley and Duff & Phelps Corp. to further its investigation into Peabody Energy Corp.'s allegedly unfair spinoff of Patriot Coal in 2007.
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May 24, 2013
KPMG Can't Force Tremont Investors To Arbitrate Madoff Row
A group of Tremont Partners Inc. hedge fund investors who lost $20 million in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme can continue their suit accusing the funds’ auditor KPMG LLP of failing to catch the fraud, a Massachusetts appeals court ruled Thursday, saying the claims were not subject to arbitration.
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May 24, 2013
NJ Judge Asks 3rd Circ. To Pick Venue In Short-Sell Suit
A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday asked the Third Circuit to decide whether a racketeering and securities fraud suit alleging Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Knight Capital Americas LP, UBS Securities LLC and others engaged in manipulative naked short-selling belongs in state or federal court.
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May 24, 2013
Countrywide Gets Mortgage Pool Contract Suit Pared
A Washington federal judge on Thursday trimmed Washington Federal's suit accusing Countrywide Home Loans Inc. of breaching a mortgage loan purchase and servicing agreement and then refusing to buy back the loans when the alleged breaches were revealed, finding their relationship lacked the required fiduciary characteristics.
Expert Analysis
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The Importance Of Morning Mist
Morning Mist Holdings Ltd. v. Krys provides guidance to courts that need to determine the location of a foreign debtor’s “center of main interests.” While not outcome-determinative in this case, in other cases, the Second Circuit’s decision may ultimately affect the scope of relief available under the Bankruptcy Code to a foreign debtor, says Alexander Woolverton of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
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The SEC's Holistic Approach To Cross-Border Swaps
A potentially significant difference from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission approach to cross-border security-based swap transactions is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's take on “substituted compliance.” The SEC apparently intends to apply a holistic approach, focusing on equivalence of regulatory outcomes, rather than a precise rule-by-rule comparison, say attorneys with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
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Pitfalls For Lenders Redeeming Ala. Property
In First United Security Bank v. McCollum, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals addressed the rights of a lender that redeems property sold at a tax sale as a result of its borrower’s failure to pay his property taxes. In certain situations, the decision will penalize lenders and awards property owners with a financial windfall, says Jack Kubiszyn of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.
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More 'Dark Pools' Deepen Litigation Issues
Not surprisingly, dark pools are beginning to crop up in litigation settings. More cases are focusing on the misuse of information contained in dark pool trades, as well as dark pools acting as conduits to insider trading. In fact, there appears to be a correlation between the growth of dark pools and the number of criminal insider trading cases brought by government officials, says Adam Werner of Berkeley Economic Consulting.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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Unprecedented FCPA Wake-Up Call For US Broker-Dealers
The extraordinary criminal bribery charges against two registered representatives of a U.S. broker-dealer and a high-level Venezuelan government official highlight that a broker-dealer’s anti-money laundering procedures, as well as oversight of their registered people, should have a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act component if the firm is doing international business, say attorneys with Duane Morris LLP.
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Libor Litigation Must Overcome Significant Obstacles
When U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a consolidated, multidistrict batch of antitrust and racketeering suits in Manhattan earlier this spring, she suggested plaintiffs seeking to recover from banking giants at the heart of the interest rate-fixing scandal might have better luck with securities fraud claims. But those plaintiffs will need to be lucky indeed. Two recent developments show that obstacles are inherent and, perhaps, insurmountable, say attorneys with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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SEC Eyes Advisory Contract Approval Disclosures
A recent settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by mutual fund directors and service providers answers a number of questions for many in the mutual fund industry and provides insight into SEC enforcement priorities, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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How The Fed's Stress Test Rules Mitigate Systemic Risk
The savings and loan holding company regulatory regime established by the Dodd-Frank Act appears to be having the ultimate effect of reducing the number of SLHCs, especially those that are predominantly insurance enterprises, say attorneys with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
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The Who, What And Why Of Public-Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships have been used in a wide range of sectors to provide public services, from power plants and railroads to hospitals and sanitation plants. Yet there are a variety of potential contractual arrangements and the financing of a PPP can be complex, say Maryam Khosharay and Herbert Glaser of Haynes and Boone LLP.