Bank Litigation and Enforcement Actions

S&C’s Banking Group combines recognized expertise in bank transactional and regulatory matters with a highly skilled litigation practice to provide banking clients the most sophisticated and informed representation available. In recent years, an increasing focus of our practice has been enforcement actions by U.S. bank regulators and other governmental agencies. In this area, many of our most successful representations are those that result in no public action.

During the past year, S&C’s Financial Institutions and Criminal Defense and Investigations groups have continued to represent many of the world’s leading banks in major disputes and investigations, including many representations and investigations that have never become public. Lawyer for lawyer, we believe we have the preeminent financial services enforcement and investigations practice in New York. Recent matters include representations of ABN Amro, The Bank of New York, Israel Discount Bank of New York, FirstMerit Corporation, Mellon Corporation, R&G Financial Corporation, UBS and Riggs Bank.

Our recent bank litigation assignments have included:

• representation of numerous U.S. and non-U.S. banking organizations in regulatory enforcement actions and internal investigations including actions involving, among others, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Department of Labor;
• defense of banks, bank holding companies and their officers and directors in shareholder securities and shareholder derivative litigation;
• advice and discussions with government officials in connection with antitrust aspects of proposed banking combinations;
• advising and representing officers and directors of troubled and failed banking institutions in negotiations with banking regulators and in regulatory proceedings;
• representation of foreign banks in disputes over whether deposit accounts in branches in foreign countries can be attached by U.S. authorities;
• defense of regulatory decisions favorable to the banking industry or particular banking clients;
• opposing state efforts to limit credit card charges by out-of-state banks;
• representation of both U.S. and non-U.S. banking organizations in various lawsuits arising from employment terminations;
• representation of both U.S. and non-U.S. banking organizations in U.S. federal money laundering criminal investigations; and
• representation of banking organizations in disputes over transactions involving derivative products and other financial instruments.