Banking Controversy

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Banking Controversy

Bank Regulation and Enforcement

The world's leading financial institutions bring their most significant enforcement and controversy matters to WilmerHale. Whether handling an agency enforcement matter, US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation, high-stakes litigation or a Congressional inquiry, the firm's Banking Controversy Practice draws on the experience our attorneys have gained serving in senior roles at the DOJ, the offices of leading US Attorneys (including in New York and Washington DC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, the White House, and other agencies. Our practice has received numerous awards and rankings from Chambers USA and Best Lawyers, among others, with clients calling it “one of the top financial services practices in the country.”

Areas of Focus

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Key Contacts

Experience

  • Department of Justice and US Attorney's Office Investigations and Litigation

    • Represented clients in dozens of internal and DOJ investigations, and obtaining several declinations of prosecution from the enforcement authorities for our clients.
    • Represented major financial institutions and securities market firms in financial crimes, anti–money laundering (AML) and economic sanctions investigations by the DOJ and other regulators.
    • Represented major financial institutions in False Claims Act investigations and litigation, including two recent cases in which district courts dismissed all claims against our clients.
    • Represented several financial institutions in connection with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations concerning financial institutions with sovereign wealth funds.

  • Regulatory Enforcement and Investigations

    • Have represented clients in dozens of formal and informal enforcement actions brought by or before several agencies, including the CFPB, OCC, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, FDIC, FinCEN, OFAC, FHFA, FTC, SEC, CFTC and agency inspectors general.
    • Defended groundbreaking regulatory actions involving auction rate securities, initial public offering allocation practices, research analyst independence, mutual fund market timing, revenue sharing and broker-dealer markups, among many others.
    • Been involved in some capacity in nearly every enforcement action the CFPB has taken against large national banks since its inception, including in the areas of credit cards and add-on products, mortgage lending, student lending, debt collection, fair lending, and others.
    • Assisted financial and other institutions with their responses to nearly all of the major congressional inquiries regarding AML issues over the last two decades.

  • Congressional Investigations

    • Represented numerous institutions and senior executives in connection with Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission inquiries.
    • Represented a global financial institution in connection with congressional inquiries into a large and high-profile trading loss.
    • Represented a global financial institution in US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry regarding money laundering, drugs and terrorist financing.

  • State Attorney General Investigations and State Regulatory Entities

    • Represented bank and nonbank financial institutions in some of the most consequential and high-profile state attorney general investigations in recent years including:
      • Representing a top mortgage servicer in the National Mortgage Settlement involving 49 state attorneys general.
      • Representing a large nonbank financial services company in a joint investigation by the CFPB and several state attorneys general.
      • Representing a worldwide financial services company in state attorney general investigations into foreign exchange practices and other administrative charges.
      • Representing a global financial services company in an investigation into net asset value practices by the Massachusetts Securities Division.

  • Financial Services Litigation and Class Actions

    • Obtained a complete defense verdict as lead trial counsel in a federal class action jury trial in the Central District of California in a case brought against a financial services company seeking $180 million in damages on behalf of 46,000 class members.
    • Represented financial institutions in the US Supreme Court on preemption, jurisdictional and substantive banking matters in cases and represented financial institution trade groups as amici in multiple additional cases.
    • Represented a major bank in a series of class actions consolidated in the Southern District of Florida pursuant to the multidistrict litigation (MDL) process, challenging item posting order, overdraft fees and related practices.
    • Represented a major payment card issuer in a series of class actions consolidated in the Eastern District of New York pursuant to the MDL process, challenging on antitrust grounds the credit card interchange fees paid by merchants acquiring banks.
    • Represented a major national lender in an appeal of a class action verdict imposing significant compensatory and punitive damages on the institution as assignee of second mortgage loans, based on allegedly improper fees charged by the originating lender, and in other similar litigation concerning assignee liability concerning such fees.

  • Intellectual Property Litigation

    • Regularly litigate intellectual property disputes, having served as lead litigation counsel in more than 300 major patent and trademark litigation cases.
    • Represented clients from a broad range of industries, including several preeminent financial institutions in patent infringement matters before the US Supreme Court, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, US District Courts, US Court of Federal Claims, and the US International Trade Commission.

  • Cybersecurity Issues

    • Regularly help companies comply with data-breach reporting obligations across the states as well as under sector-specific federal regimes, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
    • Represented an international bank in seeking removal of information stolen by a hacker and uploaded to a file-sharing site in the United States.

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