“When you’re thrust into litigation, you obviously have to make sure you’re prepared to deal with that.” –Roger Goodell
Litigation is an inevitable part of business. Financial institutions file suit to protect and defend their rights and financial institutions get sued.
Johnston Clem Gifford litigators are recognized for their depth and expertise in handling disputes involving the financial services industry. We represent financial services companies throughout the United States in federal and state court matters and arbitrations. Our financial services clients include national banks, state-chartered and community banks, securities firms, investment banks, and industry-specific finance companies.
Our litigators have represented financial services companies in an array of disputes, including:
- Appeals
- Class Action Defense
- Complex & Multidistrict Litigation
- Corporate Governance
- Data Privacy
- Fraud
- General Banking & Deposit Products
- Lender Litigation
- Professional Liability
- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
- Securities & Structured Finance
- Statutory and Regulatory Compliance
Our team both prosecutes claims on behalf of and defends lenders in a myriad of loan transactions including commercial loans, mortgage loans, and auto loans. We handle many cases for creditor banks on commercial debts, involving small, medium and large companies that have a variety of credit facilities including promissory notes, working lines of credit, credit cards or other forms of credit. We have also represented multiple lead lenders in suits brought by other bank participants in troubled multi-million dollar loan facilities.
On behalf of financial institutions, we negotiate with companies that fall into distress and want to work out the loans. We listen closely to these companies and determine if what they say they can do is realistic and in our clients’ best interests and then we proceed. Sometimes we restructure the loans and other times we take the matters directly into litigation.
Our team also has extensive experience representing financial services clients in disputes involving banking products such as deposit and checking accounts and safe deposit boxes. We routinely represent financial services clients in disputes under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z, the National Bank Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
In all cases, we work with our clients to develop customized litigation strategies that suit individual business objectives. In some cases, that means early negotiation, mediation, or dispositive motion practice. In other cases, that means pressing every ethical advantage in vigorously and aggressively prosecuting or defending claims through discovery, trial and appeal.
If you are thrust into litigation, you’ll be prepared with our team on your side.
Featured Experience
- We served as lead arbitration counsel in successfully representing a national bank that served as the administrative agent for a bank syndicate that made a $55 million revolving loan facility to an agricultural company against its auditors. After the borrower company collapsed and defaulted on the loan facility, the lenders discovered audit failures relied upon by the lender group when making the loan.
- Our team represented a super-regional bank as plaintiff asserting fraud, conspiracy, contract, and other claims regarding a $65 million syndicated loan to a multi-state agricultural company. Because client acted as syndication agent for the loan, the other senior and junior lenders also targeted the client as a defendant in the same matter. During this complex matter, the lenders collectively achieved favourable settlements from other parties. Based on the loan contracts, client asserted add-on claims against the junior lender to subrogate the junior lender’s receipt of $5.8 million in settlement funds. The junior lender responded by asserting fraud and breach of contract claims associated with the mediation discussions. The client and junior lender settled these claims on terms sharply favourable to the client.
- We represented a super-regional bank as plaintiff asserting professional negligence claims against its former regional law firm for breaching the firm’s fiduciary duties to the bank in connection with documenting a $65 million syndicated loan transaction. We led the investigation of the defendant law firm’s conduct and prosecuted the litigation through favorable settlement.