Financial Services

In this highly regulated industry, it is important to know that your lawyers are familiar with the issues you face.

UB Greensfelder’s financial services team helps clients in this field navigate the kinds of issues they grapple with on a daily basis.

Who We Are

Our team is comprised of litigation and business lawyers who are experienced in a wide range of financial services issues and often collaborate closely with clients’ internal counsel to develop customized and budget-driven approaches to resolving matters. Whether your matter involves recruiting, a business issue, or litigation, we bring together the proper skill set to address your unique issues in a cost-effective manner. While our team is national in scope, representing some of the largest and most well-known institutions in the country, we remain proud of our strong regional roots, serving as counsel to many smaller, regional firms and the individuals associated with those firms.

How We Help

UB Greensfelder provides a full range of legal services to its clients in the financial services industry. Our team brings decades of experience and exceptional depth and breadth of financial services knowledge and experience. In addition to traditional financial services matters, we also advise clients on novel and evolving areas, such as FinTech, cryptocurrency, payment processing, neobanking, and expungements.

Our attorneys regularly assist with hands-on projects for a diverse range of clients, including:

• Banks
• Bank holding companies
• Broker-dealers
• Investment advisors
• Futures commission merchants
• Trading advisors
• Mortgage brokers
• Investment companies, managers, and advisors
• Insurance companies
• Credit card and payment system companies
• Trust companies
• Motor vehicle finance companies
• Payment processors
• Thrift institutions
• Credit unions
• Neobanks
• Trustees
• Private equity funds, and
• Other diversified financial services companies.

Litigation

We represent clients facing litigation regarding broker-dealer, commodities, futures, employment, and self-directed IRA custodian issues. In addition to handling FINRA arbitrations, SEC administrative proceedings, and federal and state court class actions, we also regularly counsel institutional and individual clients in financial regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings at the federal and state levels. Additionally, we advise financial clients on data privacy and cybersecurity matters and handle the regulatory and litigation fall-out resulting from data breaches.

Transactional Matters

In addition to our litigation capabilities, we also counsel clients on a range of transactional matters, such as:

• Representing lenders and borrowers in financing transactions involving a broad spectrum of asset types
• Forming, merging, and acquiring full-service and limited-purpose banks, savings associations, and bank holding companies
• Establishing branches, agencies, and subsidiaries
• Counseling on wage and hour issues and overtime
• Counseling on trademark protection, licensing, and other IP-related matters
• Creating customer/employment/succession planning agreements
• Preparing employment agreements
• Developing and introducing a wide array of financial products and services, including fund transfers, electronic payments, payment processing systems, credit and debit cards, and internet-based credit programs.

Why Clients Choose UB Greensfelder

Clients benefit from our decades of work in the industry and the ongoing working relationships we have with national and regional regulators, including the SEC, FINRA, and many state regulators. We host industry events that highlight cutting-edge topics for stakeholders in the financial services industry and provide regulators with the equivalent of a live focus group, providing all attendees with the opportunity to discuss trends in the industry, challenges with regulatory compliance, and other relevant topics.

Representative Matters

• Counseling on investment advisor and investment company entity formation, registration, and compliance matters.
• Advising on securities laws, including counseling on compliance with public company reporting obligations, regulatory compliance and reporting, and dual registration issues.
• Counseling on data privacy, security, and data protection compliance requirements.
• Advising on Dodd-Frank compliance matters.
• Advising/litigating with respect to prohibited practices and fiduciary obligations under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, and state pension statutes.
• Advising and litigating on matters concerning a firm’s employment relationships, including whistleblower issues, broker defection and transition matters, raiding, retaliation, and discrimination cases.
• Advising and litigating all aspects of troubled loans, including workouts, modification, forbearance agreements, default loan litigation, and foreclosures.
• Assisting in identifying, collecting, reviewing, and producing documents, including ESI, in response to regulatory requests, in litigation, and in arbitration.
• Regulatory litigation, compliance counseling and negotiation with state, federal, and industry regulators
• Representing firms in national litigation and arbitration covering wide-ranging products and subject matters, including failure to supervise, unsuitability, churning, insider trading, fraud, elder abuse, trust/power of attorney issues, and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Defending clients in litigation involving mutual fund disclosures, product failures, alleged fraudulent investments, and wage and hour issues.
• Defended a former managing director of a major New York broker-dealer in a $900 million securities arbitration alleging fraudulent analyst research involving WorldCom; the arbitration panel awarded a complete defense verdict.
• Defended a major New York broker-dealer and one of its former managing directors in a $450 million securities fraud arbitration involving a series of allegedly improper hedging transactions in the over-the-counter derivatives markets; obtained a complete defense verdict and expungement.
• Defended a major New York broker-dealer in a $10 million federal jury trial involving alleged securities fraud in connection with complex futures and derivative transactions on both the CME and Globex.
• Defended a hedge fund in connection with a $50 million securities dispute involving residential mortgage-backed securities in a case involving a novel application of Section 11 of the Securities Act to misstatements and omissions in registration documents incorporated by reference into private offering memoranda.
• Represented several hedge funds in connection with market timing investigations and related civil litigation, avoiding the imposition of any fines, penalties, or other sanctions by regulators.
• Defended a national securities broker-dealer in a lawsuit brought by an Ohio county to recover $115 million in investment losses from a pooled public investment fund.
• Defended a national futures commission merchant in a lawsuit brought by investors in a commodity pool where the pool operator had pleaded guilty to criminal fraud; obtained dismissal of complaint.
• Represented partners in a trading group at the CBOE who were sued in arbitration by their former partners for fraud; obtained complete dismissal.
• Defended a national broker-dealer accused in a nationwide class action complaint of misleading investors in limited partnerships; obtained a dismissal of all charges, affirmed on appeal.
• Represented a major national and international companies in numerous cases involving trade secrets, non-competitive/non-solicitations, inevitable disclosure, raiding, and unfair competition issues.
• Represented a national banking institution accused of breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for failing to timely invest participants’ contributions to the pension and profit-sharing plan of a major insurance carrier.
• Represented national broker-dealers in non-solicitation, trade secrets, and employee raiding cases.
• Represented a national securities broker charged by the NYSE Division of Enforcement with aiding market timing in annuity subaccounts and failing to know his customer; obtained dismissal of charges.
• Represented a national securities broker sued in arbitration at FINRA by a customer for investment losses; obtained a “0” award and then successfully defended the award from attack in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.