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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s Minimum Standards for Prioritization and Handling Borrower Files Subject to Imminent...

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s Minimum Standards for Prioritization and Handling Borrower Files Subject to Imminent Foreclosure Sale for all OCC Regulated Banks. The OCC guidance is significant because it...more

New Justice Department's FIRREA Cases Against Banks: Holding The Victim Responsible

The government’s ever-evolving response to the United States financial crisis has come full circle, as civil Justice Department Attorneys seek to rely on legislation enacted to protect financial institutions from fraud to sue...more

VERONICA GUTIERREZ, ERIN WALKER, and WILLIAM SMITH v WELLS FARGO BANK N.A.

CLASS ACTION FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AFTER BENCH TRIAL AWARDING $203 MILLION TO WELLS FARGO'S CALIFORNIA CUSTOMERS

CLASS ACTION FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AFTER BENCH TRIAL AWARDING $203 MILLION TO WELLS FARGO'S CALIFORNIA CUSTOMERS. A California judge ordered Wells Fargo to pay California customers $203 after finding that...more

Senator Elizabeth Warren's May 14, 2013 letter to Ben Bernanke, Eric Holder, & Mary Jo White

Senator Elizabeth Warren's May 14, 2013 letter to The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, U.S. Department of Justice...

Senator Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answer On Big Bank Enforcement WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised the stakes of her quest to find out why a single Wall Street bank has not been prosecuted in the...more

National Consumer Law Center Re: Restoring the Wisdom of the Common Law: Applying the Historical Rule Against Contractual Penalty...

NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER (NCLS) Banks Raking In Billions In Profits From Overdraft Fees The notion behind an overdraft fee — in which a bank customer is charged a penalty for overdrafting his account — is twofold:...more

Don’t Lie About Assets Under Management

Umesh Tandon, president, chief compliance officer, and sole owner of Simran Capital Management, recently agreed to a settlement with the SEC relating to alleged violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the...more

Board Enjoined from Impeding Hostile Consent Solicitation Without First Approving Rival Director Slate under Credit Agreement...

The Delaware Chancery Court recently enjoined a board of directors from impeding a stockholder’s solicitation of written consents to replace the board, unless the board first approved the stockholder’s nominees for purposes...more

Beware of Hidden Pension Liabilities in Corporate Transactions

In a recent court case in British Columbia, employees who transferred employment as part of a corporate transaction were awarded monetary damages on account of lost pension benefits: Kerfoot v. Weyerhaeuser Company 2012 BCSC...more

Turnabout Is Fair Play: Homeowners Association Forecloses On Bank

A recent report entitled, "Florida Homeowners Foreclose On Deadbeat Banks", provides an interesting and unusual commentary on one effect of the on-going "soft" real estate market, especially for an "REO" property which the...more

SEC Annual Report: Thousands of Tips, One Award & Minimal Transparency

In its Annual Report on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program (Report), the SEC has revealed that it has received 3,001 tips during its 2012 fiscal year (the first year of this program), and it paid out its first award to a...more

Enforcing orders made in foreign insolvency proceedings

The UK Supreme Court decision in Rubin v Eurofinance SA and what it means for BVI and Cayman - This article sets out the potential impact in the BVI and Cayman of the much anticipated Supreme Court decision in Rubin v....more

California Federal District Court Permits FDIC Suit Against Former Bank Officers to Proceed

On October 5, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed several affirmative defenses invoked by a group of former bank officers sued by the FDIC as receiver for a failed bank, including their...more

Shocking Technologies, Inc. v. Michael, C.A. No. 7164-VCN (Del. Ch. Oct. 1, 2012) (Noble, V.C.)

In this memorandum opinion, the Delaware Court of Chancery found defendant Simon J. Michael (“Michael”), a director of plaintiff Shocking Technologies, Inc. (“Shocking” or the “Company”), breached his fiduciary duty of...more

It is Always Good to Follow the Plan’s Claims Procedure in Denying a Claim

A recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision involved high ranking executives who participated in a company’s long-term incentive plan. Under the plan agreements, executives who did not continue employment for a three...more

CFPB’s First Enforcement Action Warns Financial Institutions About Liability for Third Party Activities on their Behalf; Related...

This article by Victoria Holstein-Childress discusses the CFPB’s first enforcement action, announced July 18, 2012, which together with a parallel OCC enforcement action required a major bank to pay $210 million to settle...more

Court Rules on What is “Commercially Reasonable” Bank Security

Small business owners have new hope that they may be on the same footing as individuals when it comes to cybertheft from their bank accounts. ...more

Federal Court of Appeal: Canada Cannot Tax Treaty Income Twice

It is trite law that one of the main purposes of tax treaties is to prevent double taxation of the same income. In Canada this principle has often been treated with a grain of salt since Canadian domestic rules do not bar...more

$40 Million Settlement Approved in Lehman Brothers Case

On June 21, 2012, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York approved a $40 million settlement in an RMBS class action brought by Locals 302 and 612 of the International Union of Operating Engineers –...more

PBGC Asks Bankruptcy Court to Treat Prior Sale of Interest in Debtor As Prohibited Attempt to Evade ERISA Pension Liability

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) filed an objection on June 14, 2012, in the Delaware bankruptcy court proceedings of RG Steel ("Debtor"), challenging a recent sale by RG Steel's parent entity ("Parent") of a...more

Rogers Towers: Defending Mortgage Lenders Against Attorney’s Fees Claims by Condominium Associations

Lenders foreclosing mortgages in Florida frequently encounter claims by condominium associations for past due assessments. Increasingly, those entities are extending their claims in attempts to recover attorney’s fees and...more

Delaware Chancery Court Grants Reformation of Contract to Reflect Prior Email Agreement

Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered reformation of a joint venture agreement where plaintiff ASB Allegiance Real Estate Fund (ASB) proved at trial, by clear and convincing evidence, that the...more

SDNY Explores Officer-and-Director Bar Factors

In its enforcement actions, the SEC almost always seeks injunctions that prohibit the defendants from violating specific securities laws. Their value lies in the threat of contempt for violation of the order (a largely...more

M&A and Private Equity Update

This year’s edition reflects relative consistency of national trends with the prior year. While aggregate transaction activity nationally in 2011 was only marginally higher than in 2010, we are pleased that our clients...more

Wealth Management Update - May 2012

A monthly report for wealth management professionals. In This Issue: - May Interest Rates for GRATs, Sales to Defective Grantor Trusts, Intra-Family Loans and Split Interest Charitable Trusts...1 - Wandry v....more

High Net Worth Family Tax Report - April 2012, Vol. 7 No. 1

In This Issue: - $5,120,000 Lifetime Gift Tax Exemption Expiring Soon We recently circulated this article as a Special Client Alert. The resetting of the lifetime gift-tax exemption back to $1 million from...more