Overview
Banking and financial institutions operate under the constant threat of litigation and regulatory scrutiny. Gunster litigators are frequently called upon to resolve some of the most complicated and complex financial industry disputes today. Our attorneys understand how the banking and financial services industry works and are able to address the opportunities and threats faced by this constantly changing and evolving industry.
Gunster attorneys have litigated complex disputes across the state and across the country. Our attorneys defend institutional clients before state and federal courts in Florida and elsewhere as well as before the variety of federal and state administrative agencies that govern financial services industry practices. Our firm’s geographic reach is far broader than state lines and involves the effective resolution of disputes presenting significant damage exposures and serious business risks in jurisdictions across the United States.
Gunster maintains a track record of successfully representing financial institutions in a variety of litigation matters. A sampling of the firm’s experience includes claims pertaining to:
- Lender liability
- Breach of contract
- Bankruptcy and creditors’ rights
- Mortgage repurchase
- Check fraud
- Collateral agreements
- Credit extension
- Federal and state forfeiture proceedings
- Loan servicing and origination
- Lien priority determinations
- Subordination agreement disputes
- Interest rate SWAP agreements
- Wire transfers
- Negotiable instruments
- Bank deposits and collections
- Secured transactions
- Trust disputes
- Condemnation actions
- Insurance matters
- Letters of credit
- Theft
- Ponzi schemes
- Whistleblower claims
- White collar claims
- Federal Trade Commission
- Regulatory actions
The firm’s litigators have also been involved in litigation under the:
- Uniform Commercial Code
- Truth-in-Lending Act
- Fair Credit Reporting Act
- Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
- National Bank Act
- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
- Bank Secrecy Act
- Federal Trade Commission Act
- Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act
In addition, Gunster is called upon to defend financial institutions involved in various state and nationwide class action suits. Gunster litigators have represented some of the largest banking and financial institutions doing business in Florida. Class action suits and other multi-claimant proceedings have emerged as one of the greatest challenges to institutional security today, and Gunster litigators advise on all phases of a class action claim.
In today’s corporate culture, financial services companies must find new ways to maximize cash flow, improve efficiency and minimize risk. Gunster attorneys do far more than just litigate. In anticipation of potential litigation, our team assists clients with internal investigations and responses to pre-suit demands, as well as works with institutional leaders and management to develop internal policies and procedures geared toward avoiding disputes or scrutiny all together.
Gunster attorneys understand that not every case is bet-the-company litigation, but when it is, the firm provides the legal and industry specific experience required to successfully resolve the challenge at hand. Whether through artful negotiation, settlement or trial, Gunster’s banking and financial services litigation team stands ready to defend our client’s best interest at every turn.
Team
Experience
- Gunster attorneys are currently defending a financial services institution in litigation involving financial guaranty insurance issued in connection with securitizations of certain second-lien mortgage loans. The plaintiffs seek aggregate damages in excess of $4 billion, and assert the defendants made fraudulent misrepresentations and breached contracts with the insurers.
- A Gunster litigation team successfully defended financial services consumer class actions including alleged improprieties involving forced placed automobile insurance, forced placed hazard and flood insurance, the sale of single premium credit insurance and alleged truth-in-lending violations.
- Gunster successfully defended, all the way to the United States Supreme Court, a putative class action seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in unjust enrichment damages as a result of a national bank’s charging of check-cashing fees to non-accountholders, which was allegedly in violation of a state statute that requires employers to make payment of wages to employees redeemable in cash without discount. Gunster recovered significant funds lost by investors involved in Ponzi schemes. Our attorneys are lead counsel for a Big Four accounting firm alleged to have been involved in multiple schemes, and the firm has defended a major brokerage house used by a schemer.
- Gunster litigators successfully circumvented a qui tam action of $750 million brought against a financial services institution’s check clearing processes seeking remittance of all unidentified credits as unclaimed property. Our attorneys secured an injunction in the Northern District of Florida prohibiting prosecution of the qui tam plaintiff’s state court action under the National Bank Act.
- The firm received a favorable judgment in a leading case that expanded the law concerning a lender’s absence of fiduciary duty to a borrower. Also, Gunster litigators tried a $50 million RICO and lender liability claim for wrongful foreclosure against a financial services institution and tried the case to a zero jury verdict for the client.
- The firm successfully resolved a federal banking regulator’s investigation of alleged improprieties in the capital markets group of a national bank.
- A Gunster team negotiated a multi-million dollar settlement of a foreign bank’s class action claims arising from the purchase of highly illiquid auction rate securities.
- The firm’s litigators routinely counsel our banking clients in matters relating to the Bank Secrecy Act, suspicious activity reporting and regulatory and investigative subpoenas.
- Gunster has successfully tried to a defense verdict, claims of fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil theft claims.
