Institutional Plaintiffs' Litigation

Targeting Financial Institutions in High Stakes Cases. We do not dilute our civil litigation practice by engaging in general commercial litigation. Our trial lawyers are focused on one goal: to take on large financial institutions on your behalf and to win. We focus on high-stakes cases against large financial institutions, including investment banks, commercial banks, and accounting firms, among others. Our clients are typically significant institutions themselves – banks, industrial borrowers, hedge funds, private equity firms, and "Fund of Funds".

Financial Products Expertise. Because we focus our work on the financial services industry, our professionals operate with a deep level of subject matter knowledge. We have worked on numerous engagements involving complex financial services industry issues surrounding a variety of instruments, including PIPES, auction rate securities, credit default swaps, CDOs, reinsurance, esoteric mezzanine financing, multi-level credit facilities, tax shelters, a variety of unusual derivatives, and commodities futures, among others. We have teams of analysts devoted to staying abreast of updates in the law in relation to specific financial product areas.

Aggressive Former Prosecutors. Our trial lawyers include several former federal prosecutors who are experienced at investigating and building complex financial cases. Where appropriate and legitimate, we often leverage the significant collateral benefits to our civil suit that can result from a parallel government investigation.

Innovative Fee Structures. In many cases, our firm provides its services for fixed fees with premiums for achieving specific solutions to the problem at hand, or at a reduced hourly rate combined with a conditional fee based on amounts recovered for our clients.

Representative matters include:

• Representation of a private investment firm against Lehman Brothers, Inc. seeking more than $1 billion in damages arising from a $600 million investment by our client that became partially illiquid.
• Representation of a South American institutional borrower against a consortium of large financial institutions in connection with a dispute relating to $750 million of loans and bonds.
• Representation of Enrico Bondi, the Trustee in Bankruptcy of Parmalat SpA against Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America in connection with $400 million of disputed claims in Cayman Islands insolvency proceedings.
• Representation of a private investment partnership against a consortium of large financial institutions in connection with a contest for corporate control of Axtel, S.A. de C.V., a utility with $350 million in annual revenues.
• Representation of an Asian industrial company against a large U.S. institution in connection with $100 million of disputed claims in an ICC arbitration.
• Representation of a European bank against JP Morgan Chase in connection with $60 million in bankruptcy-related litigation arising out of the collapse of a multi-billion dollar revolving credit facility.
• Representation of a South American bank against Bank of America in connection with a $30 million claim arising out of a disputed financial transaction.