Financial Services & Investment Funds Litigation

Overview

Alston & Bird’s Financial Services & Investment Fund Litigation Team represents financial services companies in virtually all aspects of litigation, including complex civil and enforcement matters.

Our team advises and advocates across a broad spectrum of financial services, including national and state-chartered banks; investment banks; broker-dealers; private equity and hedge funds; asset managers; trustees and custodians; credit unions; insurance companies; lenders and servicers in the mortgage, auto, and student loan sectors; credit card issuers; fintech and e-commerce companies; and more.

Collaboration is the cornerstone of our approach. By working closely with Alston & Bird’s finance, corporate, securitization, regulatory, and bankruptcy practices, we marshal a multidisciplinary team with industry leading subject-matter expertise.

Beyond Litigation

We understand that your company faces a highly litigious and regulated environment, and as a result, you need practical solutions that keep your company out of trouble. Managing the risk of litigation for big and small players in the finance industry is a core strength of our team.

Our business-oriented lawyers work closely with CEOs, CFOs, managing directors, and your in-house legal team to help your company mitigate risk and get results, saving you time and money.

Comprehensive Legal Support

We provide strategic counsel and powerful advocacy in high-stakes matters involving:

• Breach of contract
• Lender disputes
• Corporate trust litigation
• Broker-dealer disputes
• Fraud
• Consumer class action
• Portfolio-company-related litigation
• M&A and earnout disputes
• Commercial lending litigation and workouts
• Rep and warranty and indemnification disputes

Experience

Please follow the links provided for our representative experience in:

Corporate Trust & Securitization Litigation

• Trial counsel to a CDO trustee in a dispute between bondholders and the collateral manager involving the payment of administrative expenses. The trustee also brought contractual and equitable claims against the collateral manager and affiliated parties.
• Trial and appellate counsel to a CDO trustee in a dispute between junior and senior bondholders involving the interpretation of indenture provisions.

• Counsel and special servicers of a CMBS trust involving discretion to create reserves from trust proceeds for future anticipated expenses and liabilities.

• Counsel to a CDO trustee in an action involving the liquidation and termination of a trust after a default under a credit default swap agreement.

• Counsel to a CLO trustee in multiple proceedings arising out of a public auction of loans and equity interests in distressed companies. 

Payments & Fintech Litigation

• Representing payment processors, merchants, and acquiring banks in various disputes of terms of payment processing agreements, including calculation and payment of residuals, creation and funding of reserve accounts, chargebacks, renewals, and termination.
• Represented a global payments company against breach of contract claims arising from the post-acquisition calculation of earnout payment.
• Represented a credit card fintech company in litigation over theft of business ideas and breach of contract litigation.
• Represented payments and fintech companies against class action claims challenging the disclosure and imposition of various fees.
• Representing a payment processor in a regulatory inquiry into the chargeback dispute process. 

Consumer Banking Litigation

• Represented a “big four” bank in consumer litigations in multiple states over predatory lending, predatory servicing, wrongful foreclosure, Truth in Lending Act, and Fair Credit Reporting Act claims.
• Represented multiple banks in consumer litigation over checking account overdraft fees in class actions and mass arbitration proceedings.
• Represented a regional consumer finance company in a class action in the Southern District of Georgia involving alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, resulting in a favorable settlement.
• Independent legal counsel for four financial institutions subject to the independent foreclosure review mandated by consent orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank. We were the only law firm to have been approved by both the OCC and the FRB to act as independent counsel.
• Represented a holding company in a dispute over a possible security breach resulting in fraudulent emails. 

Banking & Trading

• Represented a swap counterparty in a dispute with a former investment bank, as credit default swap counterparty, over a $1.4 billion termination payment.
• Represented a bank at trial and on appeal in New York state court in a multifaceted breach of contract, accounting, and fraud action arising from a failed commercial real estate joint venture.
• Represented a bank in a class action under the Americans with Disabilities Act involving website access.
• Represented a financial institution in a multifaceted acquisition of a mortgage company subsidiary, including breach of contract, fraud, indemnification, and earn-out payment issues.
• Represented a financial institution in the termination of a $2 billion credit default swap. 

Private Equity & Investment Funds

• Represented a fund sponsor in multistate litigation to confirm its managing member’s authority over investment vehicles, replace an affiliated manager, and pursue claims against co-venturers.
• Advised a minority investor in a European platform on an exit and governance dispute, developing leverage that moved the matter to favorable settlement positioning.
• Defended a fund management team in Delaware and New York litigation alleging fiduciary duty breaches and improper profit allocation.
• Represented a private-equity-backed portfolio company in governance, books-and-records, and shareholder-rights disputes arising from a potential liquidity event and Delaware code changes.
• Led complex cross-border fraud and asset-diversion litigation for an emerging-markets investment manager, defeating multiple dismissal and arbitration motions in a dispute involving over $1 billion in contested assets.

Commercial Lending

• Represented a commercial mortgage loan servicer in a commercial mortgage loan foreclosure and receivership action involving an apartment building in the East Village in New York City.
• Represented a national bank in a commercial mortgage loan foreclosure and receivership action involving a $60 million loan secured by a mixed-use property in Brooklyn, New York.
• Represented a commercial real estate lender in a commercial mortgage loan foreclosure and receivership action involving a loan secured by multiple mixed-use properties in Harlem, New York.
• Lead counsel to a national bank, as master servicer, in litigation in Minnesota and New York arising from disputes over five commercial mortgage-backed securitization trusts, including issues related to reserves, indemnification rights, and trust wind-down following the sale and liquidation of commercial loan assets, one of which involved the largest commercial loan in U.S. history secured by Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village in New York City.
• Lead counsel to a financial services subsidiary in federal litigation in New York arising from an alleged breach of an agreement to sell a $100+ million pool of mortgage loans, addressing industry custom and practice about the formation of binding agreements at the term-sheet stage in the secondary loan market.