Banking & Financial Services

Our attorneys work with financial institutions to build and grow from the ground up. Gunster’s objective is to help financial institutions grow and navigate beyond the compliance issues they face in this highly regulated industry. Our clients have included financial institutions from around the world, and our legal counsel has ranged from acquisition, capital raising and formation, to restructuring and sales initiatives. Gunster’s mission is to expand its distinctive history in institutional regulatory law, where our attorneys have been committed to resolving highly complicated issues. Gunster also seeks to provide the day-to-day legal advice required to effectively manage institutional development, including counseling on labor and employment law, immigration, real estate, technology, private wealth services, and the like.

Gunster’s banking attorneys strive to remain ever mindful of the complexities of overcoming compliance issues pertaining to the Bank Secrecy Act (as amended by the USA Patriot Act), Anti-Money Laundering and Office of Foreign Assets Control rules and regulations. Our Banking and Financial Services attorneys design compliance programs, focus on helping clients to prepare for regulatory examinations, represent clients in regulatory enforcement and civil/criminal forfeiture actions, advise boards and officers on matters of liability, provide general and function-specific training, as well as seek to ensure that employees and consultants work within compliance parameters. Our goal is to equip our clients with the policies, procedures, controls, safeguards and knowledge needed to tackle the industry’s ever-evolving regulations.

Gunster attorneys are diligent with their dedication to negotiating and structuring complex banking and lending transactions. Our attorneys handle a broad spectrum of commercial and asset-based lending and financing transactions, including:

• Accounts receivable/inventory loans and lines of credit

• Real estate, construction, aircraft/vessel, health care, energy, entertainment/media and agricultural finance

• Equipment leasing/loans and sale/lease-back transactions

• Participation and inter-creditor arrangements

• Mezzanine, A/B structures and bridge finance

• Letters of credit and unsecured financings

• Sweeps and interest rate swaps

• Customer account, electronic transfer and other ACH agreements

• Loan portfolio acquisitions, syndicated credit facilities, derivatives and synthetic leasing

• Debt private placements, conduit lending and securitizations

• International and trade finance

Gunster’s trial attorneys aim to deliver effective advocacy in state and federal courts and before arbitral bodies for litigation involving financial services. Our attorneys’ capabilities include disputes pertaining to mortgage foreclosures, mortgage banking and securitization conflicts, letter of credit disputes, as well as claims of lender liability arising from fraud, negligence or breach of fiduciary duty. Our trial attorneys have participated in claims involving a broad selection of grievances, including negotiable instruments and operations; foreclosures and troubled debt restructuring; lender liability defense; and mortgage banking litigation.

Gunster attorneys strive to remain active in numerous financial service organizations, including the American Bankers Association, the Florida Bankers Association, the Florida International Bankers Association, and the South Florida Banking Institute. Additionally, our lawyers are invited to speak at seminars and conferences dealing with topics of importance to the banking, securities and lending industry.