Overview
Financial institutions around the world operate in an intensely competitive and highly regulated environment that has become even more challenging due to the global economic turmoil. As firms navigate this potentially perilous terrain and adjust their investment and compliance operations to anticipate market developments, our Financial Services Group is there to provide them with the pragmatic advice and legal solutions that are critical to their continued success.
Our interdisciplinary financial services team represents U.S. and international brokerage firms, investment banks, futures commission merchants, investment advisers, investment companies, hedge funds, private investment funds and banks, counseling them on formation, regulatory matters, governance issues, employment law, benefits plans, corporate transactions, internal investigations, civil enforcement defense, criminal prosecution, dispute resolution and complex litigation.
Many of our lawyers are former prosecutors, regulators with the SEC and SROs and general counsel and compliance officers at industry firms, giving our group highly textured insight into the mindset of regulators and industry participants alike, along with a nuanced understanding of the industry's history and ongoing evolution. Our enormous breadth of technical and practical knowledge about how securities businesses operate results in our financial services team having the kind of judgment and experience that is critical to effective counsel. We look beyond the immediate implications of any particular matter to recognize the market and regulatory forces that may advance or thwart our clients' pursuit of their long-term business objectives.
Areas of Focus
Capital Markets Transactions, Mergers and Acquisitions and Investment Product Development
Compliance and Disclosure Responsibilities
DOJ Prosecutions, SEC, SRO and State Enforcement Proceedings
Domestic and Cross-Border Regulatory Advice
Employment Counseling and Litigation
Formation, Acquisition and Merger of Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers
Formation and Offering of Hedge Funds and Other Pooled Investment Vehicles
Governance and Investor Relations
Internal and Regulatory Investigations
Securities Class Actions and Other Complex Litigations
SRO and AAA Arbitrations
Transactions Involving Equity, Debt and Convertible Securities, Options, Derivatives, Futures and Electronic Markets
Key Representations
Surge Trading in the acquisition of the Madoff brokerage business
Counseling the U.S. brokerage affiliate of a major international bank in developing a business/regulatory model and protocols enabling it to trade U.S. and international equity securities, exchange-traded options, OTC derivatives, futures and international currencies on behalf of the parent bank
Defense of placement agents and investment managers in the New York, New Mexico and California pension fund industry investigations