Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Financial Services Litigation

We Know What It Takes to Protect Your Interests
Mounting economic challenges and an evolving borderless world economy are raising the stakes for banking and financial services companies. Around the globe, plaintiffs and regulators are targeting the financial services industry with consumer protection claims, shareholder disputes and government enforcement actions. With financial litigation at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever to have a legal partner with the experience and knowledge to defend the interests of financial institutions.

At Manatt, banking and finance are in our blood. In fact, the firm was founded specifically to advise banking and financial services clients. Today, we are recognized as one of the leading financial services law firms in the United States, counseling more than 300 financial institutions across the nation and around the world.

We represent virtually every type of financial institution. Our clients include:

• State and national commercial banks
• Domestic and foreign financial holding companies and bank holding companies
• State and federal savings institutions
• Savings and loan holding companies
• Representative and agency offices of foreign banks
• Investment banks
• Venture capital funds
• Private equity funds
• Insurance companies
• Leasing companies
• Industrial loan companies
• Specialty finance companies
• Trust companies
• Credit unions

In addition, the American Bankers Association and the California Bankers Association have used our services as outside counsel in California and Washington, D.C.

A Litigation Powerhouse Backed by Deep Industry Experience
More than half of Manatt’s professionals are litigators, and we have some of the most experienced and respected trial lawyers in the country. Our national Litigation Division was recognized for its “stellar results” in 2008 and 2009, with an Honorable Mention from The American Lawyer in its fifth biennial Litigation Department of the Year issue. The firm was one of only 24 to receive the designation in a competition that included the country’s top 200 firms.

While our attorneys are accomplished litigators, they are particularly skilled in issues unique to our financial services clients—including practice before all applicable regulatory authorities. Many of our group’s attorneys have served with government agencies and at the senior level in prominent financial institutions. Additionally, our team includes experienced lawyers who previously served as federal or state prosecutors, federal public defenders, SEC officials, high-level White House and congressional staffers, and lawyers with significant experience in crisis management and dealing with the media.

With lawyers from such varied government and industry-specific backgrounds, Manatt is the ideal choice for financial services clients facing scrutiny from federal or state prosecutors, the SEC, FINRA, federal or state inspectors general, state attorneys general, Congress or a well-coordinated plaintiffs’ bar.

Strategically Savvy Defenders Against Government Lawsuits
Manatt’s litigation professionals draw on the deep experience of our banking and regulatory attorneys for innovative defense strategies. Over the years, we have handled complex and novel issues arising under the statutes and regulations governing the financial services industry.

Our national scope brings us into frequent contact with financial institution agencies in many states, and we constantly interact on compliance and expansion matters with federal regulators at the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and similar institutions. Manatt’s deep familiarity with government regulations and regulatory bodies has provided us with a proven track record of defending clients against alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Truth In Lending Act (TILA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Bank Secrecy and USA Patriot Acts, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and a host of technical banking regulations. Additionally, we have broad experience in litigating claims brought under federal and state unfair competition and consumer fraud laws, which often take the form of class action lawsuits.

Effective in Negotiations, Aggressive in the Courtroom
Manatt’s lawyers provide aggressive and effective representation at all stages of disputes. Our primary goal is to quickly resolve problems for our clients, preferably before a lawsuit has been filed. When that’s not possible, we zealously represent our clients throughout the case, including through appeal where necessary. Our skill in the courtroom is well-known to our adversaries, and as a result we are often able to obtain favorable outcomes for our clients short of trial.

Representative Areas of Expertise

• Antitrust and Unfair Competition
• Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense
• Class Actions
• Commercial
• Employment and Labor
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Fraud
• Insurance
• Internal Investigations
• Money Laundering
• Securities
• State Attorneys General
• Shareholder Derivative Suits
• Tax

Manatt in Action

• Claims of unfair competition and consumer fraud relating to business practices in the mortgage lending, auto finance, retail banking, and commercial real estate finance and investment banking industries
• Statutory and common law claims often made in the form of individual and class action lawsuits involving allegations of lending discrimination, securities fraud and/or financial institution failure
• Related claims against directors and officers in actions arising out of financial institution failures
• Claims for alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Truth In Lending Act (TILA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Bank Secrecy and USA Patriot Acts, and a host of technical banking regulations
• Controversies involving antitrust implications in bank mergers, grants and denials of permission to engage in nonbanking activities, and administrative enforcement orders 
• Broker-Dealer disputes, including FINRA arbitrations
• Claims against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, including for losses caused by changes in legislation that made so-called “supervisory goodwill” ineligible for treatment as regulatory capital
• Account claims involving disputes over check fraud, privacy issues, attachment and garnishment, wire transfer claims, letters of credit and retirement accounts
• Lender liability claims in which our clients are sued by consumer or business borrowers that claim fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract, or breach of fiduciary duty involving their loans or credit cards
• Claims under mortgage and GAP insurance policies that protect lenders 
• General commercial claims for breach of contract and business torts, including fraud and breach of fiduciary duty
• Employment claims, including claims relating to discrimination, harassment and executive compensation
• Intellectual property claims, including patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret claims
   

Diversity at Manatt

Manatt considers diversity to be a fundamental component of our institutional identity. As a law firm, we have a professional responsibility, and as individuals, we have a personal responsibility to our respective communities. Incorporating diversity into our culture allows us to enhance the high-quality, creativity and excellence in legal services that our clients have come to expect.

Manatt has invested a significant amount of human and financial resources in our own diversity program. Our philosophy is simple: include women and minority lawyers at all levels of Firm leadership and promote diversity in the legal profession through our support and active involvement in various minority civic and bar organizations.

The mix of our minority and women attorneys has consistently exceeded the national average among the country's top law firms. Our talented mix includes minority and women lawyers serving as heads of offices, members of the firm's Board of Directors and management team, and chairs of some of the firm's most important practice groups.

Inclusive Culture
Our progressive culture allows us to maintain a growing mix of women and minority lawyers, and the results illustrate this commitment.  The American Lawyer ranked our Firm 29th (in the top 12%) on its Diversity Scorecard for the largest 250 law firms in the country for 2009.  Multi Cultural Law Magazine included our Firm on its 2008 lists of the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity, Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Top 25 Law Firms for Openly Gay/Lesbian Americans.

Despite our progress and diversity success, we can do better.  Our challenge extends far beyond exceeding national averages.  Our plan cannot succeed if we focus only on recruiting minority and women attorneys.  The true challenge and measure for achieving success lies in creating and preserving an inclusive environment where our minority and women lawyers will stay, progress, prosper and succeed.  We have implemented a formal diversity program designed to enhance our recruiting and retention of diverse attorneys through an executive mentoring program intended to cultivate personally and professionally meaningful relationships between our diverse lawyers and our partners. 

Our commitment to diversity exists in a living document – a plan – that is concrete, easy to understand and publicly available.  The plan demonstrates to every law school student, lateral associate candidate, lateral partner candidate, recruiter, existing client, and potential client that we are serious about creating a workplace that mirrors the breadth of the communities where we and our clients live and work.

We focus on the following key areas to accomplish our mission.

Targeted Recruitment Effort
At Manatt, recruiting women and minority attorneys does not end on law school campuses. Our recruiting efforts focus on locating talented women and minority lawyers at all levels. At law schools, we seek out and interview students who share our core values in ways shaped and enhanced by their own experience. Manatt's 2005 Summer Program was the most diverse in the Firm's history. Our nine 2005 Summer Associates included two African-American students, three Hispanic students, one Asian-American student and three Caucasian students. Five of these nine students were women.

Mentoring as a Cornerstone
Minority attorneys who join Manatt as new or lateral hires immediately become the focus of a mentoring program. They are paired with senior attorneys who take an active role in encouraging their career development. Mentors actively work with their protégés, helping them form business plans and involving them in firm-wide marketing and development opportunities. Management holds mentors accountable for their roles and their protégés' progress at the Firm, including reviewing their efforts as part of the evaluation and compensation process.

Access to Opportunity
Success is a matter of talent and opportunity. At Manatt, we believe that the key to retaining talented minority attorneys -- and therefore the key to the success of our diversity efforts -- is providing a distinctive experience that offers clear access to professional accomplishment. We provide women and minority attorneys with important responsibilities and leadership opportunities in client development activities, complex litigation, large transactional matters and high-profile community and civic organizations. We also encourage and support minority and women attorneys who take leadership positions within the firm and outside in the community at large.

Long-Term Commitment
We challenge ourselves to make our young lawyers feel valued, involved and invested in the future of the firm. We know that they will eventually occupy the most important financial, management and executive positions at Manatt. Our professionals thrive in an atmosphere that encourages and supports responsibility, ambition, and entrepreneurship. We offer true opportunity equal to individual commitment to success and advancement. That's the history of opportunity at Manatt, where professionals with talent and drive are rewarded with a nurturing, dynamic and energizing climate.

Promoting Diversity
Promoting diversity in the legal profession requires both an investment of money and time. Our women and minority attorneys are prominently involved and hold leadership positions in some of the most important minority civic and bar organizations in the country including:

• Asian Americans of Equality
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
• California Association of Black Lawyers
• California Black Chamber of Commerce
• California Women's Law Center
• Chilean Association of Attorneys
• D.C. Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• Inner City Law Center
• International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of City of New York
• Korean American Bar Association
• Korean American Coalition
• L.A. Conservation Corps
• La Raza Galeria Posada
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Urban League
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund Board
• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
• The Association of Women in International Trade
• Women Lawyers Association
• Women's Bar Association of District of Columbia
• Women's Forum of Washington D.C.