Sonnenschein's Financial Institutions & Lending Group represents a broad range of clients on matters involving traditional legal services and litigation related to financial and lending transactions, and with regard to matters before state and federal regulatory and legislative bodies affecting the world's leading financial institutions.

We regularly act as counsel to domestic and foreign banks, thrifts, institutional lenders, investment banks, investment funds, hedge funds, corporate and special purpose borrowers and government sponsored enterprises and financial services trade associations. We offer clients a powerful combination of knowledge, experience, and strategic and political skills.

The integrated approach to legal, regulatory and legislative issues our Financial Institutions & Lending Group takes permits us to anticipate potential problems before they become serious, advise our clients on the most appropriate response, and to access the key decision-makers in the agencies if necessary to address these items. Our Group is deeply integrated with the broad capabilities of our Corporate, Tax, and Bankruptcy & Restructuring Groups.

In addition, working in close coordination with our Financial Institutions & Lending Group, Sonnenschein's Public Law & Policy Strategies (PL&PS) team are demonstrated experts in developing, organizing and managing "campaign-style" efforts nationwide and internationally. Our combined expertise can be quickly marshaled on a client's behalf, whether the issue is a cross-border acquisition that implicates national security issues, a proposed merger that requires multi-jurisdictional approvals, or a planned initiative that stirs Congressional opposition.

Sonnenschein's combined legal, regulatory and advocacy expertise sets the firm apart from traditional law firms.

The Financial Institutions & Lending Group's work consists of six principal elements.

Transactional Matters
We represent our clients in transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, stock and debt issuances and investments, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.

Lending Matters
We regularly assist clients with public and private debt offerings, term and revolving credit loans, secured and unsecured loans, working capital and acquisition loans, tax exempt and tax advantaged financing, single-lender and syndicated loans, single and multiple currency loans, asset-based loans, corporate or cash flow loans, subordinated debt and other mezzanine financings, aircraft and equipment financing, project finance loans, loan sales and participations, accounts receivable securitization transactions, and letter of credit and other credit and liquidity support devices.

We have served financial institutions involved in variety of industry sectors, including healthcare, retail, real estate, hospitality, technology, manufacturing and communications, as well as a number of service industries. Sonnenschein's lawyers work extensively with industry banking groups focused on these and other industries and draw daily on their knowledge of specialized operational and credit risks in representing the interests of lenders in these deals.

Regulatory Counseling
We engage in all aspects of regulatory counseling and representation before the financial institution regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Treasury Department and state banking and insurance departments. This includes counseling as to handling a full range of regulatory filing and processing matters, including for complex and novel applications in emerging areas, as well as federal and state securities filings.

Anti-Money Laundering USA PATRIOT Act/Bank Secrecy Act
We provide representation on matters relating to federal and state anti-money laundering and know your customer statutes and regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act, suspicious activity reporting, disclosure of customer information and related privacy issues.

Enforcement and Litigation: We provide advice to officers and directors of financial institutions on a wide variety of federal and state investigatory and enforcement matters, primarily concerning matters initiated by federal and state banking agencies. We also have been engaged to represent financial institutions in a variety of private litigation contexts, including consumer class actions, shareholder class actions and other suits, lender liability actions and both litigations and internal investigations of sales practices.

Legislative Advocacy
We provide legislative and strategic advice to clients concerning pending legislation before the U.S. Congress, as well as with respect to public policy issues generally. Sonnenschein offers comprehensive legislative tracking and response capabilities and is deeply experienced at developing advocacy strategies designed to introduce clients to federal and state policymakers and ensure that their interests are represented. Sonnenschein possesses both the relationships and substantive policy experience to successfully represent financial institutions. This includes drafting standalone legislation as well as proposed amendments to bills and meeting with members of Congress and their staffs to introduce our clients and develop support for such legislative initiatives.

back to top