Financial Services

Overview

Parker Poe has a long history of providing legal services to international, national, and regional financial institutions on a wide range of their transactional, enforcement, tax, and litigation needs. We serve as trusted advisors to banks, broker-dealers, nonbank lenders, and fintech companies. We have a deep understanding of their businesses and the regulatory framework under which they operate.

The scope of our experience covers the financial services industry spectrum, from the structuring, negotiating, and closing of a wide range of loans and other financial transactions to the representation of financial institutions in bankruptcy, FINRA arbitrations, and enforcement proceedings. In all of the above, Parker Poe provides a balanced, pragmatic approach to achieving our clients' objectives in a responsive, efficient manner.

"Parker Poe always handles complex and sophisticated matters with ease,” one of our banking clients told Chambers USA, which develops rankings using in-depth interviews and objective research. Clients have also told Chambers “the attorneys at Parker Poe are top-notch” and “their team is great.” U.S. News & World Report, The Best Lawyers in America, and other independent publications rank our financial services attorneys highly across our Southeastern footprint as well.

Areas of Focus

Financial Restructuring

Parker Poe's Financial Restructuring Practice Group combines strategic advice and practical skills in representing our clients. Our focus is to provide sound judgment and problem-solving skills that lead to efficient, effective resolutions for our clients. We have the transactional and litigation experience to anticipate and resolve the tough issues that arise in financial restructurings inside and outside bankruptcy court.

Our attorneys have significant experience in bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors' rights, foreclosure and loan servicing, secured creditor and debtor representation, creditor committee representation, purchaser representation, loan restructuring and workouts in a variety of industries, such as manufacturing, retail, hospitality, real estate, financial, and health care.
We work with a wide array of clients in remedies enforcement, including commercial receiverships and foreclosures for lenders and servicers in the Southeast.

Related Professionals

Kiah T. "Chip" Ford IV
Partner
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Financial Services Disputes

Parker Poe has long-standing relationships with many national, regional, and community banks, along with broker-dealers, nonbank lenders, creditors, servicers, and insurance companies. Because of the experience and knowledge our attorneys have gained by representing these businesses, we are strongly positioned to help our clients in the financial services industry meet new challenges head on, including civil lawsuits.

Our experience with financial services disputes includes:

Offensive Litigation

All aspects of the collection of outstanding debts, including foreclosures, bankruptcies, receiverships, federal and state court collection actions, and arbitrations.
Breach of contract claims against vendors that include claims on insurance policies and financial institution bonds.
Intercreditor/participation agreement disputes.

Defensive Litigation

Lender liability claims that include fraud, negligent misrepresentation, unfair and deceptive trade practices, and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Commercial financial instruments litigation that include interest rate swaps/letters of credit.
Bankruptcy adversary proceedings that include preference actions and fraudulent transfers.
Retail banking claims defense that include litigation related to forged checks and invalid signature cards.
Defense of claims challenging validity of bank collateral security interests.
Consumer mortgage defense that include RESPA, TILA, ECOA, FDCPA, FCRA, and wrongful foreclosure.

Broker-Dealer Disputes

A full range of disputes and investigations impacting broker-dealers, including FINRA arbitrations and federal and state lawsuits.
- Our experience includes FINRA industry disputes such as raiding and recruiting cases involving noncompete and non-solicitation agreements, breaches of contracts and confidentiality clauses, and financial advisor promissory note cases.
- Our attorneys have extensive experience defending against a variety of FINRA customer cases (and similar cases in the courts) alleging unsuitability, fraud, negligence, churning, and failure to supervise, among other claims.
Defense of insurance and annuity product cases that include class actions involving alleged misrepresentations in connection with the sale of life and disability insurance, lawsuits involving the denial of life insurance benefits, and lawsuits alleging the sale of insurance products by “unauthorized” insurance carriers or otherwise in violation of state regulations.

Fiduciary Disputes

Extensive experience representing corporate fiduciaries in matters that include trust disputes, claims for breach of fiduciary duties, declaratory judgment actions seeking construction of ambiguous instruments, payment of fiduciary compensation, and actions to remove a fiduciary.
Our attorneys are able to navigate the complexities of the underlying fiduciary law principles, as well as effectively strategize and advocate for a successful result.

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Banking & Capital Markets

We represent community banks and major regional, national, and international financial institutions. These clients include borrowers and investors whom we represent in the structuring, negotiating, and closing of a wide range of loans and other financings and financial transactions. The attorneys in our banking and finance group provide a balanced and pragmatic approach to achieving our clients' business and financial objectives.

We represent major financial institutions in sophisticated lending and other financial transactions along with institutional borrowers, investors, project sponsors, manufacturers, and developers in secured and unsecured corporate, commercial and real estate loans and other financial accommodations, including:

Asset-based loans
Bond transactions (public, private and direct purchase by financial institutions)
Commercial and industrial loans
Construction and development loans
Environmental assessments and mitigation for lending opportunities
Interest rate swaps and other derivatives transactions
Mezzanine financings
New markets tax credit lending
Real estate acquisition financing
Revolving credit facilities
Small business and SBA lending
Structured lending
Syndicated credit facilities
Term financing

Related Professionals

Scott A. Shail
Partner
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Wanda C. Townsend
Partner
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Regulatory Review & Enforcement

Whether your business is facing a routine regulatory review or enforcement officers have launched an investigation, Parker Poe's attorneys know how to respond. Our team regularly advises clients in reviews and investigations by many federal and state enforcement agencies. In particular, we have a long history of helping clients navigate supervision and investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and various state attorneys general.

Parker Poe's clients run the gamut of the financial services industry, from the nation's largest banks undergoing multi-state, multi-agency investigations, to brokerage firms facing SEC and FINRA scrutiny over alleged off-channel communications, to a small community bank sued in a family fight over a single account. The regulatory and white collar matters our team has advised on include:

Bank fraud
Class action litigation
Computer crimes and intrusions
Economic espionage
Fair lending compliance and enforcement
False Claims Act
Federal and state investigations
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
Insider trading
Money laundering
Mortgage servicing compliance and enforcement
Responding to subpoenas, including complex third-party subpoenas
Securities fraud and other securities violations
Shareholder derivative lawsuits
Student loan compliance and enforcement
Theft and embezzlement

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Tax

Banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions face a confusing patchwork of federal, state, and local tax laws and regulations. Our team replaces confusion with clarity. Parker Poe has developed a niche in the taxation of the financial services industry, and we use our experience to help clients address tax disputes through negotiating settlements, disputing assessments at administrative hearings, and, when necessary, trying the matter in a court of law.

Our clients cover the full range of financial institutions, from the largest national banks and credit card companies to regional financial lenders to neighborhood community banks. Our experience enables us to quickly understand your business and address your tax needs in a cost-efficient manner. We have helped clients navigate state allocation and apportionment formulas, including successfully representing them on sourcing income from interest and fees. Our work also includes preventing state taxing authorities from discriminating against our clients’ holdings of federal bonds.

Parker Poe attorneys have negotiated a variety of settlements with revenue departments. And, when settlement has not been an option, our team has successfully represented clients in litigation as well.

Related Professionals

James N. Greene III
Partner
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Kay Linn Miller Hobart
Partner
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Intellectual Property

Parker Poe attorneys have extensive experience addressing the intellectual property needs of banks and other financial institutions, ranging from major global providers to local community banks. Our IP attorneys’ work in this area includes:

Brand Expansions

Brand protection is critical in this dynamic industry, where expansions (both organic and through acquisitions) are commonplace. If banks do not take early steps to protect their brands in all geographic areas where they might someday decide to expand, they may later find that it is too late, because another bank has already established rights to a similar brand. Our team helps financial institutions plan ahead, making the necessary investment today to avoid obstacles to growth tomorrow.

Trademark Clearance

We routinely evaluate and advise on our clients’ proposed new marks – including new product names, taglines, and logos – with regard to registrability and potential infringement of other banks’ marks.

Domain Name/Website Monitoring and Enforcement

Financial institutions are frequent targets of phishing scams and other online misconduct. Parker Poe is experienced at monitoring for such misconduct and taking enforcement action when necessary, including by disabling fraudulent websites and recovering infringing domain names, so that our clients and their customers are protected.

IP and IT Contracts

Even relatively minor financial services contracts can create enormous legal risk. For a small percentage of the contract price, we can protect our clients’ key interests and shift much of the legal risk involved with such contracts to the other party, where it belongs.