Financial Institutions

AlvaradoSmith’s Financial Institutions lawyers protect the rights and defend the interests of banks, lenders, and FinTech companies using innovative technologies to provide financial services.

Our seasoned trial and appellate attorneys – some of whom held in-house counsel positions with financial institutions prior to joining the firm – bring a unique understanding of the industry to every client representation.  Drawing upon our unparalleled experience to resolve problems and surprises in litigation matters, we guide financial institutions and other entities through governmental inquiries and other regulatory and compliance issues.

Compliance and Prevention of Disputes

Clients rely on our frank assessments and discerning analyses to navigate evolving federal and state laws and regulations, and to evaluate the impact of those rules on their business and strategic objectives. We have extensive experience helping institutional creditors resolve a wide range of creditors’ rights questions and disputes: director and officer liability issues, bankruptcy litigation, receivership proceedings, claim and delivery actions, cybersecurity and fintech, prosecution of borrower fraud, lender liability, and foreclosure and anti-deficiency law claims.

Transactions and Investments

In addition, we regularly advise our financial institution clients on corporate and business matters, such as the acquisition of retail bank branch facilities and equity investments in nonprofit and economic / community development organizations intended to qualify for positive consideration under the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

Our team brings together a diverse group of transactional and dispute resolution lawyers whose backgrounds and experience combine to provide practical, sound advice across a wide range of challenges and issues.

One AlvaradoSmith attorney spent more than ten years helping one of the country’s Top 5 banks invest more than $150 million per year in community and low-income projects before heading up the bank’s Community Development initiatives in the greater Los Angeles region.  Another was in-house at the Resolution Trust Corporation, where he oversaw the asset management firms responsible for disposing of more than $560 billion in assets of failed savings and loan institutions.

Our Financial Institutions attorneys have won ground-breaking cases – like the major trial and appeal victory for an international banking client that established new case law on the bad-faith waste “exception” to the anti-deficiency statutes – and managed significant dockets, including the portfolio for one of the world’s largest banks that at its peak involved 1,500 active cases.

Representative work includes:

• Represented a California foreclosure trustee in a state class-action lawsuit alleging improper collusion and kickbacks received from lenders for referral of trustee business which led to a favorable settlement.
• Negotiating hosting, co-location and data center agreements for a large national financial institution as part of its risk mitigation and data redundancy requirements. Due to the highly confidential nature of the information held by our client, the agreements required extensive negotiations to ensure the protection of customer privacy and provide comprehensive remedies in the event of a breach.
• Representing a large national financial institution in a lawsuit filed against a mortgage loan correspondent for breaching correspondent agreements. The AlvaradoSmith attorneys obtained a $6+ million judgment in favor of our client.
• Successfully represented multiple financial institutions in various federal and state lawsuits brought by time-share owners for alleged violation of the Securities Act, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. In all cases, the firm obtained defense judgments on behalf of our clients.
• Successful representation of a financial institution in a lawsuit brought by a purported tenant alleging a violation of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009. We ultimately obtained a published 9th Circuit opinion in the dispute, that held that the Act does not allow private causes of action.
• Advised a federally chartered savings bank in its $13 million Public Welfare Investment in a private equity fund organized to create greater financial liquidity and a lower cost of capital within the Small Business Administration (SBA) Section 7(a) program loan secondary market.
• Represented a California state-chartered bank in the acquisition of seven retail bank branch facilities in communities located along the U.S.-Mexico international border.
• Represented a California state-chartered bank in a $7.241 million loan for working capital to a South Texas-based borrower that was secured by three real property assets of the borrower and guaranteed by the borrower’s Mexican parent company.