FINANCIAL SERVICES LITIGATION

Arnold & Porter attorneys have extensive experience with all phases of financial institutions litigation, arbitration, and contested regulatory proceedings. We routinely handle such matters from pre-litigation advice and investigation, through initial case assessment, dispositive motions, class certification, discovery (including extensive experience with complex e-discovery issues and responding to subpoenas), trial, and appeal. The firm's ongoing Financial Institutions Litigation Initiative brings together dozens of attorneys experienced in presenting cases involving banks, savings institutions, their holding companies, insurance companies, securities firms and other participants in the financial services industry to federal and state courts, as well as federal and state regulatory tribunals, and special judicial bodies such as the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Our Financial Institutions Litigation team includes numerous attorneys with extensive first-chair trial experience, many seasoned appellate advocates, and one of the most highly regarded and successful Supreme Court practitioners in the country; the roster includes a former Comptroller of the Currency, a former OCC Director of Enforcement, and a former Acting General Counsel of the FHLBB.

While we most frequently represent defendants, we are also experienced in presenting claims on behalf of plaintiffs. Our sweet spot is complex, high-stakes litigation (including but not limited to class action matters), but we have also recently litigated a variety of loan- and asset-specific matters. We have litigated on behalf of banks, savings institutions, their holding companies, finance companies, other non-bank lenders, officers, directors, investors, trade associations, and (occasionally) governmental entities other than the primary bank regulators.

We are sensitive to the costs, burdens, and risks that litigating cases to judgment can involve, and are always attentive to the possibility that a more desirable outcome could be achieved through settlement rather than via the judgment of a court, administrative law judge, or arbitrator. However, when settlement is not possible and litigation is necessary, we are prepared to do so tenaciously and efficiently.

Arnold & Porter's financial institutions litigation and arbitration portfolio includes matters related to consumer lending, mortgage lending, mortgage securitization, account terms and disclosures, fee practices, lender liability, regulatory enforcement, challenges to statutes and regulations, contract disputes, takings claims, tax and tax-benefit disputes, deceptive-practices claims, statutory claims (under TILA, FDCPA, state and federal False Claims Acts, and other statutes), antitrust claims, securities claims, and a variety of other subject matters. We have also recently presented several successful challenges to state and local regulatory and disclosure enactments on grounds of federal preemption.

More specifically, in recent years we have represented two major financial institutions and their respective Boards of Directors in more than a dozen class and derivative lawsuits and regulatory matters arising out of mortgage foreclosure practices, FHA mortgage regulations, auction rate securities sales, mutual fund practices, and telephone call recordings. We also recently prevailed over FINRA Enforcement in a landmark decision involving a broker-dealer's adoption of a class action waiver in its customer arbitration agreements.

We also have extensive recent experience litigating class-action matters involving overdraft-fee practices, credit-card account disclosures, and mortgage servicing and origination practices, as well as defending financial institutions against claims for breach of securitization-trust reps and warranties. We were recently engaged to handle more than 50 cases involving the interpretation and application of the tax-exemption terms of certain federal financial institution charters. We regularly represent major financial institutions in securities matters, including SEC investigations and enforcement actions, as well as class actions alleging securities fraud and related securities law violations.