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Author: Banking Law Library Panel of Experts
Format: Internet
Frequency: On line/Ongoing
The premier online research tool tailored just for bank attorneys
Pratt’s Banking Law Library is an internet-based law library offering legal analysis and discussion of the law, regulation and case law.
The Library will provide the latest information on: banking law news * digests and case summaries on a broad range of cases * analysis of key cases * in depth legal analysis of key issues, state and federal laws, regulations and regulatory documents * and much more!
The Library is organized into five legal areas so that you can easily locate the information you need:
- Consumer lending
- Commercial lending
- Accounts and payment systems
- Structure, capital and governance
- BSA, OFAC, Patriot Act, Privacy and Security
This comprehensive resource allows you to easily access source materials, agency documents, CFR and USC citations, in depth legal analysis of key issues and case summaries by the leading experts, and much more!
Legal guidance by the biggest names in the industry
Donald I. Baker is a senior partner of the antitrust specialty firm of Baker & Miller PLLC, in Washington, D.C. His current practice covers a full range of antitrust law and enforcement, with special emphasis on appeals, joint ventures, mergers, takeovers, and the problems of regulated enterprises. From 1966 to 1975, Mr. Baker served on the staff of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where, in 1972, he became Deputy Assistant Attorney General responsible for international trade, regulated industries, economics, and appeals. He received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Serous Award in 1972 and was the principal author of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Guide to International Operations (1977). In 1976, President Ford nominated Mr. Baker as assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division (1976-1977).
Mr. Baker was a professor of law at Cornell Law School prior to becoming a partner of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in 1978 and Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan in 1983. During the Reagan-Bush transition in 1981, Mr. Baker served as a senior advisor to the Federal Trade Commission transition team. He is currently special advisor to the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine. He is also a member of the NAFTA Task Force of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Mr. Baker is former Secretary of the Antitrust and International Trade Committee of the Business Law Section of the International Bar Association. He is a member of the panel of Distinguished Neutrals, appointed by the Centre for Public Resources to serve as arbitrators and mediators and is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators appointed by the American Arbitration Association. He has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report in Washington, D.C., since 1975.
In April 1988, Mr. Baker was entered into the EFT Hall of Fame for his significant contribution to the growth of electronic funds transfer. Since leaving the government, Mr. Baker has actively participated in public debates and has also testified before congressional committees on various antitrust policies, budgets, and pending legislation. He is former chairman of the Federal Bar Association’s Banking Law Committee and the Corporate and Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Section on Corporation, Banking, and Business Law. He speaks regularly at antitrust and banking seminars, and has written numerous law review articles on these subjects. Mr. Baker was educated at Princeton University, the University of Cambridge, and the Harvard Law School. He is also a member of the bars of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States.
Roland E. Brandel is a partner in the national law firm of Morrison & Foerster. He has specialized in consumer financial services law for nearly three decades, and has headed his firm’s national financial services practice group. Mr. Brandel received his J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Chicago Law School. He has written numerous books and articles on financial services topics and has lectured regularly on topics throughout the country.
Mr. Brandel was a charter member of the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board. Within the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, he chaired the Committee on Consumer Financial Services and its Subcommittee on EFT, chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on Payment Systems, which participated actively in the drafting of new Article 4A and substantially revised Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code, and served as a member of the governing Council of the 55,000 member Section. Mr. Brandel served as a member of the Managing Committee and chaired the Legal Advisory Committee of the National Center on Financial Services, University of California at Berkeley. He recently served as the Chair of the 11,000 member Business Law Section of the State Bar of California and has also served as the chair of that section’s Financial Institutions Committee. Mr. Brandel has served as a member of the Study Group on Negotiable Instruments, and as a member of the Study Group on International Electronic Fund Transfer of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law.
Mary Brookhart is the Chief Executive Officer of Southeast Consulting, Inc. Her key areas of expertise include bank asset/liability management, financial modeling, hardware and software selection, office automation, and human resource management systems. She has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Bank Asset/Liability Management newsletter since 1992, and is the author of several other books and newsletters for the financial services industry. Additionally, Ms. Brookhart has published numerous articles on software selection, asset/liability management, financial management, and fraud and forensics training in various national publications. Prior to launching Southeast Consulting, Mary was a management analyst for the federal government where, over a 15-year period, she held numerous positions in operations research, business analysis, and management systems optimization.
Buckley Kolar, LLP is one of the nation’s premier law firms for the financial services industry and specializes in regulatory compliance for residential lending, state licensing, and e-commerce. The lead author for Buckley Kolar, LLP, is Andrea Lee Negroni, Esq. Ms. Negroni is one of the nation’s leading experts on mortgage origination law. She regularly conducts due diligence reviews of several independent mortgage companies prior to their acquisitions or IPOs. She has conducted 50-state surveys of virtually every substantive area of regulatory compliance of interest to residential mortgage lenders. Under a USAID contract, Ms. Negroni advised the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Slovakia on the implementation of a private mortgage banking system in that country.
Mark E. Budnitz is a Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, where he teaches courses in electronic commerce, commercial law, consumer law, and bankruptcy. Previously, he taught at Emory School of Law. Professor Budnitz has also practiced law, served as Executive Director of the National Consumer Law Center, and was Chief of the Bankruptcy Reorganization Branch of the Atlanta office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He has authored one book, co-authored three books, and published more than a dozen law review articles. Professor Budnitz is a member of the American Law Institute.
Barbara Clark is a former federal prosecutor and commercial litigator with over 25 years’ experience. She is a partner in the Commercial Law Institute, Greenwood, Virginia. Ms. Clark is a graduate of Hamilton College and the University of Maryland School of Law. She has been a partner in private practice specializing in commercial litigation and has represented financial institutions before federal and state regulators. One of Ms. Clark’s areas of special interest is financial fraud and risk management. She is a co-author (with Barkley Clark) of The Law of Bank Deposits, Collections and Credit Cards, The Law of Secured Transactions Under the UCC, and Clarks’ Guide to Electronic Check Collection. Ms. Clark has also co-authored (with Barkley Clark and Mark Hargrave) Truth in Savings: Legal Analysis and Compliance Strategies, and is a co-editor (with Mr. Clark) of two monthly newsletters—one on secured transactions and the other on bank deposits and payments.
Barkley Clark is well known as a national authority on commercial and financial services law. He is a partner in the law firm of Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP. He advises financial institutions and businesses around the country on a variety of UCC and federal banking law issues, including payment systems, secured transactions, and sales. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School. During a teaching career spanning 35 years, he has taught commercial law at the University of Kansas School of Law, Georgetown Law Center, George Washington University, and the University of Virginia School of Law. His publications are relied on by practicing attorneys and bankers throughout the financial services industry and are frequently cited by federal and state courts. He has served as a special adviser to the Federal Reserve Board, the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and state legislatures around the country. He has also served as a director of a national bank. He has co-authored (with Barbara Clark) four major treatises in the banking law area—The Law of Bank Deposits, Collections and Credit Cards, The Law of Secured Transactions under the Uniform Commercial Code, and Clarks’ Guide to Electronic Check Collection. He co-edits (with Barbara Clark) two newsletters—Clarks’ Bank Deposits and Payments Monthly and Clarks’ Secured Transactions Monthly.
Helen Davis Chaitman, author of the first edition, is a partner with the law firm of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz. Ms. Chaitman practices in the areas of commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and lender liability. She was the chairman of the Commercial Financial Services Committee, ABA Section of Business Law, and is the author of numerous publications on banking and commercial law.
John Dolan is Distinguished Professor of Law at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. He has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Michigan, the University of California (Hastings College of the Law), twice at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, at Ave Maria School of Law, and at the University of Maastricht. He was also a visiting scholar at University College Dublin.
From 1988 to 1991, Professor Dolan chaired the American Bar Association Letter of Credit Subcommittee and was a full member initially and, later, an ex officio member of the Task Force that studied letters of credit for the ABA from 1987 to 1989. He was an ABA adviser to the Drafting Committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws that prepared the 1995 version of Article 5. From 1988 to 1995, he served as a member of the Study Group on Trade Documentation of the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Private International Trade Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute and from 1990 to 1995 was adviser to the Restatement of Suretyship project.
Professor Dolan has co-authored several textbooks and law journal articles. He was a member of the board of editors and an officer of the University of Illinois Law Forum (now University of Illinois Law Review). He also served on the board of editors of Letter of Credit Update from 1985 to 1987, is a member of the editorial board of the Banking Law Journal , and is a contributing editor to the Banking & Finance Law Review (Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto).
Professor Dolan graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1965, clerked for the United States District Judge in the Eastern District of Illinois upon graduation, and then practiced law full time for ten years before he entered law teaching.
L. Richard Fischer is one of the foremost authorities on financial privacy in the United States. A partner in the national law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, for over 30 years Mr. Fischer has advised a wide variety of banks and other financial service providers across the United States on the full range of banking law issues, with a special emphasis on privacy, data security, e-commerce, technology, and joint venture issues. He has written and lectured extensively on many aspects of financial services law. Mr. Fischer received his BA degree from the University of San Francisco and his JD degree from Hastings College of Law, University of California.
Karen Gelernt, a Harvard law graduate, is a partner with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Her principal practice involves the representation of domestic and foreign banks, investment banks, and other financial institutions in an extensive variety of mortgage banking and financing transactions.
Clayton P. Gillette is a co-author of Check Fraud Protection Manual published by Sheshunoff Information Services, Inc., Payment Systems and Credit Instruments, a leading casebook on the subject, and the author of multiple articles concerning payments law and other areas of commercial transactions. He is the Max E. Greenberg Professor of Contract Law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches commercial law. Professor Gillette has also served as an expert witness and consultant in matters involving the use of fraudulent negotiable instruments. After graduating from the University of Michigan School of Law, Professor Gillette served as a clerk to the Honorable J. Edward Lumbard of the United States Court of Appeals and was associated with the Manhattan office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton. He has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia, and prior to that was Associate Dean, Professor of Law, and Warren Scholar in Municipal Law at Boston University School of Law. He has also served as a visiting professor of law at New York University School of Law and the University of Michigan School of Law.
Goodwin Procter LLP Financial Services Group is one of the largest financial services practices in the United States and one of the country’s principal law firms serving providers of electronic financial services. Goodwin Procter also serves as counsel to a number of national financial services trade organizations.
Lynne B. Barr is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice and chair of its Consumer Financial Services Practice, focusing on banking and financial services law. She advises banks, bank holding companies, brokerage concerns, mortgage companies, trade associations and other entities on general corporate matters, including the operation and offering of their products and services, particularly in the context of federal and state regulation of financial institutions and their activities. Ms. Barr has extensive experience in credit and mortgage lending matters (including licensing, disclosure, documentation, interest rate limitations, and credit reporting), fair lending and equal credit opportunity issues, credit and deposit services, electronic banking and Internet services, and insurance products. Ms. Barr recently completed her term as chair of the ABA’s Consumer Financial Services Committee. She is also the former chair of the Financial Holding Company Subcommittee of the ABA’s Banking Law Committee and the ABA’s Consumer Financial Services Subcommittees on Deposit Accounts and Programs.
Raymond P. Boulanger is a former partner and currently counsel in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. He has been practicing as a financial services lawyer for over 29 years. Mr. Boulanger has participated in many projects that involve securities, banking, ERISA, commodity futures, and tax issues for financial services clients and has coordinated and supervised the legal response to sophisticated, complicated transactions for such clients. Mr. Boulanger has also done extensive work on structuring, organizing and implementing various pooled investment vehicles, including real estate investment funds, registered and unregistered investment companies (offshore and domestic), collective investment trusts, limited partnerships, REITs, common trust funds, and other investment vehicles.
John J. Cleary is a partner in the firm’s ERISA/Employee Benefits Practice. Mr. Cleary represents numerous employers in connection with their employee benefit requirements, including qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, welfare plans, and executive compensation. He has particular experience with respect to issues arising in connection with corporate and real estate transactions and under Title I of ERISA, including fiduciary, investment, and prohibited transaction matters. In addition, Mr. Cleary has been extensively involved in establishing and operating numerous collective investment fund vehicles for institutional investors, including many VCOCs and REOCs, as well as in developing a variety of new investment practices and products. Mr. Cleary has frequently represented trustees, investment managers, and other fiduciaries concerning their fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA.
Margaret B. Crockett is a former partner and currently counsel in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Crockett advises banks, bank holding companies, trust companies, and mortgage companies on a variety of corporate and banking issues, including compliance with Massachusetts and federal laws and regulations governing financial institutions and their activities. She also has extensive experience in consumer banking regulation and lending matters, including truth in lending and truth in savings regulation, mortgage lending disclosure requirements, electronic funds transfer regulation, Internet banking, fair credit reporting, fair lending and privacy. Ms. Crockett is a member of American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee. She serves as chair of the Consumer Financial Services Subcommittee on Deposit Accounts. In addition, she authored “The Constitutionality of Regional Banking Laws: Northeast Bancorp, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.” Ms. Crockett has represented financial institutions on a full range of corporate and regulatory matters, including bank mergers and acquisitions, mutual holding company formations, branch sales and acquisitions, and purchases and sales of mortgage loan portfolios. She also advises banks and limited purpose trust companies on the offering of mutual funds, securities brokerage services and trust services.
Peter T. Fariel is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Fariel has substantial experience in the financial services area, having worked with investment advisers, mutual funds and private investment companies on a range of matters, including fund formation and ongoing operations. Mr. Fariel has also represented investment advisers and issuers in securitization transactions, including in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other asset-backed securitization transactions.
Melanie L. Fein is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Fein provides legal services to clients on a wide range of regulatory issues at the forefront of developments in the financial services industry. She has extensive experience with matters affecting domestic and foreign banks, bank holding companies, financial holding companies, securities firms, mutual funds, trust companies, leasing companies and other financial service institutions. Much of Ms. Fein’s work involves new products and services at the intersection of banking and the securities laws. Ms. Fein is chairman of the Executive Council of the Federal Bar Association’s Banking Law Committee and has participated in leadership roles on committees of the American Bar Association. She has served on advisory boards for the Practising Law Institute, Consumer Bankers Association, Banking Policy Report, and Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance, among other organizations.
Eric R. Fischer is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Fischer focuses on bank regulatory matters including issues concerning mergers and acquisitions of financial institutions, director and officer liability, securities and insurance activities of banks, banking operations and security matters, corporate governance, bank safety and soundness and examination matters, capital raising initiatives, and financial institution formation and reorganization transactions. He also advises financial institutions with respect to anti-money laundering compliance issues. Mr. Fischer serves as chair of the American Bar Association Banking Law Committee’s Subcommittee on Community Banks. He is a former chair of the Banking and Financial Services Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association and of the Task Force on Bank Directors of the American Bar Association. Mr. Fischer is a frequent lecturer on, and serves as an expert with respect to, topics concerning bank directors, bank acquisitions and banking regulation. Mr. Fischer has served on more than ten occasions as chair of the Annual Banking Seminar organized by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and has participated in numerous panels sponsored by the Massachusetts Bankers Association. Since 1993, Mr. Fischer has served as editor of the chapter concerning financial institution mergers and acquisitions in A.S. Pratt & Sons’ Banking and Lending Institution Forms (with Commentary and Checklists). Mr. Fischer has also chaired and participated on numerous occasions in the Annual Financial Services Seminar jointly presented by the Boston Bar Association and Boston University School of Law. He also serves as a co-editor of Goodwin Procter’s Financial Services Alert.
Elizabeth Shea Fries is a partner in the firm’s Fund Formation and Financial Services Practices. Ms. Fries has particular expertise in innovative investment products, hedge funds, financial services merger and acquisition transactions, fiduciary issues and compliance matters. She dedicates her practice to a broad range of investment management, fund, broker-dealer, banking, and other financial services matters. She is experienced in the public and private offering of interests in open-end and closed-end management investment companies and other collective investment vehicles, such as offshore investment funds, investment limited partnerships, private REITs, group trusts, common and collective funds and investment trusts. She also advises investment advisers, investment companies, banks, insurance companies, brokers, and other providers of financial services regarding complex compliance issues resulting from the operation and integration of a variety of investment businesses. She counsels both established and start-up companies seeking to provide electronic financial services and products. Ms. Fries is an editor of Goodwin Procter’s weekly Financial Services Alert. She has spoken at numerous seminars, including on bank/broker-dealer regulation, strategies for a stronger trust business, implications of Sarbanes-Oxley for mutual funds, securities lending, private fund formation issues and investment company issues for non-financial firms. Ms. Fries was a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review at Columbia University School of Law. Ms. Fries has substantial expertise regarding the organization and structure of numerous business and investment entities and assists clients in creating and implementing investment products and service arrangements.
Jackson B.R. Galloway is a senior counsel in the firm’s Investment Management Practice. He assists clients with the organization and operation of collective investment vehicles, including registered open- and closed-end investment companies, hedge funds and offshore funds. Mr. Galloway also counsels registered and unregistered investment advisory organizations regarding regulatory compliance and related matters. Mr. Galloway is an editor of the firm’s weekly financial services newsletter, Financial Services Alert, and is the publication’s principal contributor on developments in the investment management industry.
Robert G. Kester is partner in the firm’s Tax Practice, focusing on corporate, partnership, international, and general business taxation matters. Mr. Kester specializes in the tax-advantaged structuring of acquisitions and dispositions, reorganizations and other business restructurings, IPOs, venture capital investments, and international transactions. A significant part of Mr. Kester’s practice is devoted to REITs, regulated investment companies, partnerships, limited liability companies and other pass-through entities, including attention to the special tax considerations faced by tax-exempt and foreign entities with respect to investments in such entities. Mr. Kester has also participated in resolving tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service and has sought and obtained private letter rulings from the IRS on many significant issues.
Geoffrey R.T. Kenyon is a partner in the firm’s Investment Management Practice. Mr. Kenyon works with major investment managers and other financial institutions, and with institutional investors and independent mutual fund directors, he has gained extensive experience with all sectors of the U.S. domestic market, including SEC-registered open- and closed-end funds and nonregistered hedge funds and private equity funds. Mr. Kenyon’s practice has a significant international component. He has worked with funds organized in a variety of offshore domiciles and has significant experience with funds offered to the European, Asian, and Latin American markets. Mr. Kenyon also advises numerous non-U.S. investment managers with respect to their U.S. activities. He was the author of two no-action letters, Goodwin, Procter & Hoar (March 1, 1997) and Goodwin, Procter & Hoar II (October 5, 1998) through which the Securities and Exchange Commission provided comprehensive guidance for the sponsors of non-U.S. funds seeking to offer shares in the United States.
Satish M. Kini is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Kini advises domestic and international financial institutions on a broad range of regulatory issues. Mr. Kini represents U.S. and foreign banks, financial holding companies and broker-dealers on regulatory issues, including anti-money laundering, privacy, corporate governance, and securities and banking matters. Mr. Kini is the author or co-author of numerous articles regarding anti-money laundering and banking and securities laws, including “The U.S.A. Patriot Act: What’s Been Learned, What’s Ahead” in American Banker (Nov. 17, 2003); “Problems With the Solution: New Forfeiture Provision Creates Confusion, Conflict and Risk for Banks” in The Banking Law Journal (Oct. 2003); “Terror Trail Clues” in Barron’s (Sept. 15, 2003); “New Contours of Bank Securities Activities: The 'Dealer’ Push-Out Rules” in The Banking Law Journal (May 2003); “Analyzing Affiliate Transactions Under the Federal Reserve’s Regulation W” in The Banking Law Journal (Mar. 2003); and “Subordinated Debt: A Capital Markets Approach to Bank Regulation,” 41 Boston College L. Rev. 195 (2000). Mr. Kini is also a frequent speaker on financial institutions, anti-money laundering, privacy, and related matters.
Thomas J. LaFond is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Department. Mr. LaFond has a diverse corporate practice with a focus on securities law matters and bank regulatory and corporate finance transactions. He has substantial experience in securities law compliance matters, mergers and acquisitions on behalf of private and public companies, private placements and underwritten public offerings of debt and equity securities, equity and debt restructurings, leveraged buyouts, and other matters of general corporate law.
Gregory J. Lyons is chair of the firm’s Financial Services and Banking Practices. Mr. Lyons concentrates his practice principally in the banking area, engaging in U.S. and foreign bank regulatory, formation, merger, conversion, structuring and securities work, risk capital and trust matters, as well as general corporate and securities law matters. Mr. Lyons has represented banking and other financial institutions before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and state banking and securities regulatory agencies. He also specializes in analyzing a variety of approaches for securities, insurance and other non-banking financial services enterprises to acquire and leverage banking institutions, as well as for banking organizations to engage in nontraditional banking activities, and assisting clients to assess the business and regulatory risk associated with each approach. In addition, Mr. Lyons created and writes Goodwin Procter’s weekly financial services newsletter, Financial Services Alert, and regularly advises clients as to the ramifications of legislative and regulatory developments. He also recently created and chaired a national conference regarding ways to leverage the benefits of a bank within a diversified financial services organization, and speaks at numerous seminars on banking and related issues.
William P. Mayer is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Mayer has handled a wide variety of transactions for the firm’s banking and financial services clients including mergers, acquisitions, public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, stock conversions, bank and holding company formations, and other reorganizations of financial institutions and holding companies. He serves as corporate general counsel for a number of publicly held financial institutions and financial institution holding companies. He regularly advises foreign and U.S. clients on bank regulatory matters involving state and federal law, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and other state and federal regulatory agencies. Mr. Mayer has also served as legal advisor to Bulgaria’s Central Bank on issues relating to banking sector restructuring and legal reform as well as to Jordan’s Central Bank on electronic commerce legislation. Recently, he participated in a series of meetings sponsored by the International Monetary Fund and regional regulatory authorities in the Middle East and the Caribbean to advise central bank regulators on the legal and regulatory framework for supervising complex financial organizations.
Kathryn I. Murtagh is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Murtagh has extensive experience in corporate finance transactions, including private placements, IPOs, subsequent public and private offerings for public companies, and exchange offers. Her practice also includes merger and acquisition transactions for both public and private companies. Ms. Murtagh participates in Goodwin Procter’s Banking, M&A/Corporate Governance and Real Estate Capital Markets Practices. Ms. Murtagh’s practice includes public and private mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, securities law compliance for public companies and general corporate representation. She provides advice in all aspects of securities law compliance and corporate governance for clients across a broad range of industries, including banking and financial services.
Philip H. Newman is chair of the firm’s Investment Management Practice. Mr. Newman works primarily with registered investment companies, independent directors of investment companies, registered and unregistered investment advisers, banks and other financial services institutions in the investment management industry. As counsel for numerous mutual funds and their sponsors, Mr. Newman has experience in structuring multiple class and master/feeder distribution arrangements, handling mergers and acquisitions of affiliated and unaffiliated funds, and forming a variety of investment company products, including asset allocation funds, multicurrency income funds, domestic and international equity and fixed-income index funds, open-end and closed-end high-yield bond funds, precious metal funds, securitized real estate funds, and other types of money market, equity and fixed-income products. Mr. Newman regularly interfaces with the SEC staff on a broad range of regulatory matters, including exemptive order applications, no-action letters, registration statements, and examination inquiries. He also has extensive boardroom experience, including the representation of independent directors of mutual funds. Mr. Newman regularly speaks at mutual fund industry conferences, including the ALI-ABA Conference on Investment Company Regulation and Compliance, the annual ICI-SEC Securities Law Developments Conference, and the semiannual ICI Investment Company Directors’ Conference. Mr. Newman has published numerous papers for these and other industry programs and is a contributing author to Mutual Fund Regulation, a PLI treatise on the regulation of investment companies.
Regina M. Pisa is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Goodwin Procter LLP. Ms. Pisa’s practice focuses primarily on the financial services area, representing both banks and investment companies. Most recently, her practice has concentrated on mergers and acquisitions of banks and financial institutions, earning her and the firm national recognition and a place among the top bank M&A practices in New England. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, Ms. Pisa represents banks and financial institutions on a wide variety of other matters, including corporate and board governance issues, capital raising, and general corporate and securities law issues.
Victoria E. Schonfeld is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Schonfeld focuses her practice on securities and investment management issues. She is nationally recognized for her work in asset management, alternative investments, and mutual funds, as well as for her expertise in the acquisition of asset management firms. Ms. Schonfeld advises clients on structuring, documenting and operating retail advisory products and private investment funds, such as hedge funds, funds of funds and master-feeder funds. She has extensive experience supervising investment adviser compliance reviews and structuring compliance programs. Ms. Schonfeld acts as counsel to independent trustees of mutual funds and counsels investment advisors, in addition to counseling clients on myriad corporate and regulatory issues. Ms. Schonfeld has held several directorship positions, including chairing the underwriting committee of ICI Mutual Insurance Company (1995-2000). She is on the Investment Company Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York; a past member of the Securities Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar Association; and is an honorary consul to the country of Bulgaria. Ms. Schonfeld is also involved in a number of communal and philanthropic activities, such as the New York Board of the American Jewish Committee and the Board of the Women’s Executive Circle of United Jewish Appeal.
William E. Stern is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Stern works on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters for Goodwin Procter’s financial services clients, with particular emphasis on transactions involving the creation of new bank charters and charter conversions and assisting clients in choosing and structuring the most appropriate bank charter for their business needs. Mr. Stern advises clients on bank regulatory matters relating to domestic and foreign investments and activities, including merchant banking and other types of passive investments, personal and real property leasing, lending, captive reinsurance, trust department and other asset management operations, and other types of financial activities. He also counsels clients on regulatory issues related to transactions between banks and affiliates, risk-based capital, structuring and operating pooled investment vehicles, bank mergers and acquisitions and other bank-related corporate transactions.
Kay Elise Bondehagen is a senior attorney in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Bondehagen works on financial services regulatory and application matters relating to banking, securities, investment management and trust activities. Ms. Bondehagen is a member of the Executive Council of the Federal Bar Association’s Banking Law Committee. She was an officer of the Corporate, Finance, and Securities Law Section of the District of Columbia Bar Association. Ms. Bondehagen was an attorney and senior attorney in the Banking Structure Section of the Federal Reserve Board Legal Division. In addition, she was senior counsel and special assistant to the First Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and was assistant general Counsel for legislation and financial services at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ms. Bondehagen began her legal career as an assistant attorney general for the State of Wisconsin Department of Justice and focused on financial services as an associate for a Seattle law firm. Ms. Bondehagen has authored articles in the areas of financial services reform and legislation. She has made presentations at conferences on banking, holding company, accounting, and securities regulation.
Walter S. Pollard, Jr. is a senior attorney in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Pollard’s practices primarily in the areas of collective investment vehicles, hedge funds, investment management, capital markets, financial products and derivatives. His practice includes representation of operating companies, hedge funds, registered investment companies, registered investment advisors, commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors, commodities futures merchants, trust companies, banks, real estate partnerships and REITs in addressing the legal issues raised by their ongoing operations and participation in the capital markets. Mr. Pollard has extensive experience in the structuring and negotiation of derivative and other capital market transactions. His practice includes the representation of clients in their efforts to extend their capital markets activities to an Internet based market. Mr. Pollard has represented some of the most prominent managers in the hedge fund and investment management industry, assisting in their development of cutting edge investment management techniques, including the use of complex financial instruments such as derivatives, futures and repurchase agreements. Mr. Pollard has authored several articles on derivatives issues, including “Derivatives Enter the Mainstream,” that recently appeared in the Boston Business Journal.
Mohit Raj Bhatia is an associate in the firm’s Private Equity Group. Mr. Bhatia has represented investors and issuers in early and later stage minority growth equity investments, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, and debt financings, as well as public and private companies in various aspects of mergers and acquisitions. He has also worked on the formation and operation of private investment funds and on general corporate and securities law matters, including the establishment of management compensation and equity incentive programs. Mr. Bhatia has represented clients investing or operating in a variety of industries, including business and financial services, information technology, health care and biotechnology, outsourcing, and real estate.
Paul W. Decker is an associate in the firm’s Tax Practice, where his practice has included work on corporate reorganizations, mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, and environmental issues.
Jonathan H. Dinwoodey is an associate in the firm’s Business Law Department. Mr. Dinwoodey’s experience covers a range of corporate and transactional matters, including private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other matters of general corporate and securities law. His practice also includes work on a variety of investment management, mutual fund, and other financial services matters.
Christina A. Docherty is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. She works on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters, with particular emphasis on compliance issues and complex structuring involving affiliated transactions, as well as regulatory work in connection with mergers, purchases and assumptions, reorganizations and other bank-related corporate transactions.
Eric J. Graham is an associate in the firm’s Securities and Corporate Finance Practice.
Mehrin Masud-Elias is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. Masud-Elias has worked on a variety of bank regulatory and investment management matters. Her corporate practice also includes work in public and private mergers and acquisitions and other matters of general corporate securities laws.
Jan-Yung Lin is an associate in the firm’s Fund Formation Practice. His practice has included work on formation of private equity funds and real estate funds, securities laws, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and limited liability companies, Section 529 college savings programs and general corporate practice.
Christine McManus is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Ms. McManus’ practice concentrates primarily on advising banks, bank and financial holding companies, mortgage companies and trade groups on a variety of corporate and banking issues, including compliance with Massachusetts and federal laws and regulations governing financial institutions and their activities. Ms. McManus also assists financial institutions with a broad range of transactions, including without limitation, mergers and acquisitions and the offering of Internet and other electronic funds transfer services.
Robert S. Seigal is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. Mr. Seigal works on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters, with particular emphasis on compliance issues and complex structuring involving affiliated transactions, as well as regulatory work in connection with mergers, purchases and assumptions, reorganizations and other bank-related corporate transactions.
Derek Steingarten is an associate in the firm’s Financial Services Practice. In addition to general corporate and securities law, Mr. Steingarten’s practice includes work on investment management, mutual fund and other financial services matters.
Scott A. Webster is an associate in the firm’s ERISA Practice. Mr. Webster specializes in all aspects of ERISA and executive compensation matters, including the benefit aspects of mergers and acquisitions. He works closely with employers and executives in structuring, implementing and administering equity-based compensation, incentive compensation and other employee benefit plans and arrangements, including providing advice with respect to tax, accounting and securities law concerns that arise in connection with such plans and arrangements. He also represents numerous financial service organizations and other fiduciaries concerning issues arising in connection with the investment of employee benefit plan assets and the establishment and operation of collective investment vehicles, including fiduciary, investment and prohibited transaction matters.
Nena E. Groskind is a freelance editor and writer who specializes in finance, real estate, and banking issues. A professional journalist for more than 25 years, Ms. Groskind currently is the author of “Realty Q&A,” a popular real estate question-and-answer column that has appeared weekly in the Boston Sunday Globe since 1978. She is the former editor of Banker & Tradesman, a Boston-based trade newspaper covering the real estate and banking industries. She is the co-author of two books (Community Reinvestment Act: How to Implement Your Bank’s Program and Community Reinvestment Act: How to Implement Your Bank’s Small Business Lending Program), and was a contributing editor to Bob Vila’s Guide to Buying Your Dream House.
Richard B. Hagedorn is the Rosalind VanWinkle Melton Professor of Law at Willamette University College of Law. After practicing for a number of years, he taught commercial law at the schools of law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Law, Gonzaga University School of Law, and the University of Oregon. He teaches all Uniform Commercial Code subjects, debtor-creditor law, and contracts and has won numerous awards for his teaching excellence. He is also a frequent lecturer on commercial law topics and is a member of the American Law Institute. Professor Hagedorn is the co-author of several leading legal treatises that are core publications in commercial banking law, including Brady on Bank Checks. A widely respected authority on negotiable instrument law, Professor Hagedorn has also co-authored The Law of Debtors and Creditors and authored Secured Transactions in a Nutshell and The Law of Promissory Notes. Henry J. Bailey, III, was Professor of Law Emeritus at Willamette University College of Law. He was a leading expert on banking-related commercial law. He served as an attorney for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the American Bankers Association and served as Assistant Vice President of Empire Trust Company.
Steven A. Meyerowitz, the Editor-in-Chief of The Banking Law Journal and author of Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law, is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Mr. Meyerowitz was an attorney for a prominent Wall Street law firm for nearly five years before founding Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company that works with some of the largest and most successful law firms in the country. Mr. Meyerowitz specializes in helping lawyers write, produce, and place their bylined articles, newsletters, brochures, and other marketing materials, and in integrating publications into a firm’s overall marketing program. He has written scores of articles on law firm marketing and management for publications including The New York Times and the ABA Journal, and is a columnist for the New York Law Journal, a contributing writer for The Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine (published by the Pennsylvania Bar Association), Marketing Law Editor of Marketing Management Magazine (published by the American Marketing Association) and managing editor of the Federal Bar Council News. In addition, he is the author of a book on marketing, sales and advertising law. Based in Northport, New York, Mr. Meyerowitz is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, a Trustee of the Harvard Law School Club of Long Island, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Northport-East Northport School District.
Peter Mihaltian is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Southeast Consulting, Inc. His key consulting expertise includes strategic financial management, risk management, asset/liability management, financial modeling, strategic systems planning, and systems development. Mr. Mihaltian has been the technical editor of the Bank Asset/Liability Management newsletter since its inception in 1982. Additionally, he has published numerous articles on managerial automation, cost control, and financial management in national technical journals. Prior to joining Southeast Consulting, Peter held key positions as Executive Vice President of Information Technology and Operations, Executive VP & CIO, and Chief Information Officer at several Fortune 500 companies. He also served as the Partner in Charge of KPMG’s Charlotte, NC-based Finance and Technology Practice where, over a 15-year period, he coordinated KPMG’s financial management and information technology consulting services throughout the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Florida.
Raymond T. Nimmer is the Leonard Childs professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, where he also codirects the Intellectual Property and Information Law Institute. One of the foremost national and international experts on electronic commerce, Professor Nimmer is the author of more than 10 books, including The Law of Computer Technology and Information Law. Professor Nimmer served as Reporter to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws for the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, an act that for the first time in commerce blends the multiple and disparate legal disciplines of commercial law, licensing, information, intellectual property, sales laws, and financing. Professor Nimmer also serves as an expert witness and consultant in litigation concerning those areas as well as for bankruptcy matters. He is included in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and in the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers.
James H. Pannabecker practices law from Natural Bridge Station, Virginia, and focuses on banking law and regulatory compliance. He formerly was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Citicorp Mortgage, Inc., where he managed the provision of legal services for the nationwide origination of mortgage loans through Citicorp’s affiliated first mortgage lenders. Before joining Citicorp, he served as in-house counsel to Maryland National Bank, First American Mortgage, and First Virginia Banks, Inc. Mr. Pannabecker graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and has been admitted to practice law in North Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Missouri, and Georgia. He is the author of numerous publications in the areas of banking and lending law.
Earl Phillips, editor of Consumer Credit and Truth-in-Lending Compliance Report, is Professor of Law Emeritus, Fordham Law School. Professor Phillips is a graduate of Georgetown University and was admitted to the bar in Texas, the District of Columbia, and New York.
Alan Rice has devoted his career to reporting and interpreting Washington policy and regulatory developments for the financial services industry. Based in Arlington, Virginia, he is the long-time author/editor of Pratt’s Letter as well as the author of Pratt’s Directors Newsletter, Pratt’s Bank Employment Law Report, and Bank Wage-Hour and Personnel Report.
Melissa Richards Wallace, contributor, is also an attorney with extensive mortgage banking expertise. She is a member of Severson & Werson, and focuses her practice on advising residential mortgage loan originators, servicers, brokers, and due diligence providers regarding compliance with federal and state laws and regulations.
Sandra Schnitzer Stern is a partner in the New York law firm of Nordquist & Stern PLLC. Ms. Stern is one of the leading experts of commercial lending law, having served on the drafting committees to revise both UCC Article 9 (Secured Transactions) and Article 5 (Letters of Credit). Ms. Stern was appointed by the Commissioner of Uniform State Laws in 1992. Prior to her current practice, Ms. Stern served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Banco Santander from 1993 through 1995 after leaving Republic National Bank of New York, where she was Deputy General Counsel. She is a fellow at the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and Secretary of the Business Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.
Milton R. Schroeder is a Professor of Law at the Arizona State University College of Law in Tempe, where he teaches courses in banking law, payments and credit systems, and commercial transactions. He has taught these subjects and published extensively about them for more than 20 years. He has been an academic visitor at the University of Melbourne and Ormond College, Melbourne, Australia, in the field of banking law. Professor Schroeder was in private practice in Washington, D.C. prior to joining the Arizona State University Law faculty. He is a member of the bar of the states of Arizona and Illinois and of the District of Columbia. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association and participates in numerous committees of these organizations concerned with banking and commercial law, including those involved in the revision of the Uniform Commercial Code Article 3 on negotiable instruments, Article 4 on bank deposits and collections, Article 4A on funds transfers, and Article 9 on secured transactions.
David McF. Stemler is an attorney based in Arlington, Virginia. He is an author/editor of Pratt’s Letter, Pratt’s Federal Fair Lending and Credit Practices Manual, and Pratt’s RESPA Manual, as well as Pratt’s Bank Law & Regulatory Report. Mr. Stemler is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
Holly K. Towle chairs the Electronic Commerce Practice Group of K&L Gates, a full-service law firm providing legal services from locations in the United States and abroad. One of the world’s most respected authorities on Internet-based transactions and banking law, Ms. Towle is included in An International Who’s Who of E-Commerce Lawyers and in the Cyberspace and Banking law sections of The Best Lawyers in America. She speaks and is published nationally and internationally on electronic commerce, licensing, and online services. For almost a decade, she has commented on behalf of trade organizations or other clients on proposed legislation regarding computer information transactions, electronic commerce, software licensing, proposed revisions to UCC Article 2, and consumer protection rules; she continues to assess new legislative proposals for clients and to identify and analyze “new economy” issues for use in defending or maintaining litigation.
Robert Volk is Associate Director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University School of Law where he also serves as Director of the First-Year Writing Program, Associate Professor of Legal Writing, and faculty advisor to the Annual Review of Banking Law. He has taught courses in banking law, law and morality, and the American legal system. Professor Volk received his J.D. (cum laude) from Boston University School of Law.
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