Banking & Financial Services
O’Melveny helps banks and financial services providers maximize opportunities while mitigating risk in a hypercompetitive and highly regulated industry.
O’Melveny helps banks and financial services providers maximize opportunities while mitigating risk in a hypercompetitive and highly regulated industry.
Breadth and quality: Those are the reasons why The American Lawyer calls O’Melveny a “go-to” law firm for financial services companies. Our team of former federal and state regulators and prosecutors and executives from financial firms offers guidance based on real and recent experience. We know the law and the business, in the US and around the world, and we anticipate our clients’ needs.
Our banking and financial services clients turn to us on their most important matters, from big-ticket litigation to high-profile transactions, and that is because we deliver successful outcomes for them. But it is not all about front-page news and complex deals. Yes, our team helped restructure Puerto Rico in one of the biggest bankruptcies in history; yes, we derailed threatened enforcement matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), state Attorneys General, and other regulators; and yes, we’ve had success in enormous, high-stakes, multi-district litigation.
That is the work that makes the headlines, but we also help our clients avoid litigation and regulatory enforcement actions and penalties by providing excellent, business-friendly regulatory advice and compliance counseling regarding securities issues, consumer protection, fair lending, credit reporting, debt collection, deposit and loan products, digital asserts, and cryptocurrency policy.
We also lead internal investigations, compliance and risk assessments, and process overhauls involving anti-money laundering, securities and accounting fraud, and market manipulation. Through our risk-avoidance and mitigation work, we have helped clients avoid state and federal regulatory enforcement actions and have positioned our clients to pass regulatory scrutiny of proposed transactions with ease.
Our lawyers also help banks, financial services providers, and fintech innovators grow and reshape their businesses, bringing transactional savvy, strategic sophistication, and fluency in financial services-specific regulations and commercial issues to bank-as-principal acquisitions, divestitures, investments, and corporate counseling as well as matters in which banks are lenders, arrangers, underwriters, or parties to complex derivative transactions.
Our lawyers devote time and attention to every detail of every matter because they have firsthand experience with the impact of litigation and other disruptions on business operations. And they know the questions regulators and other government officials will ask because they used to be the people asking those questions.
Won dismissal with prejudice in a False Claims Act suit involving allegations of improper loan modification practices stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.
Counseled First Citizens Bank as sole lead arranger and administrative agent on US$95 million in financing toward the relaunch of noted Hollywood film production company Castle Rock Entertainment, which is headed by director Rob Reiner.
Won summary judgment, affirmed on appeal, of Fair Credit Reporting Act claims challenging automated underwriting software.
Advised a committee of First Republic Bank’s independent board members following the high-profile failures of SVB and Signature Bank, including on First Republic’s acquisition by JPMorgan Chase.
Assisted client as agent and lead bank in a US$550 million debt financing of independent rights management and music publishing company Kobalt Music Group Ltd.’s acquisition of copyrights.
Obtained appellate victory vacating a multi-million trial-court judgment relating to overdraft fees.
Resolved a putative nationwide class action—seeking more than US$1.5 billion—that alleged that the bank’s overdrawn-balance charges were usurious.
Represented the underwriters, led by BNP PARIBAS, Citigroup, Mizuho Securities, and TD Securities, in TMCC’s US$850 million notes offering, the largest for TMCC in the last decade.
“The financial services litigation team is consistently strong and deep. I have the utmost confidence in their ability to handle complex regulatory actions, litigation and disputes.”
—Client Testimonial, The Legal 500 US
Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, and International Financial Law Review regularly recognize our team for leading finance work.
“Highly regarded for its experience acting for major financial services clients, regularly serving as coordinating counsel in nationwide disputes.”
—Chambers USA
Top ranked nationally for Banking and Finance Law
—US News & World Report/Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms” survey (2023)