Banking and Financial Services Litigation

Representative Cases

Class Action and Multidistrict Litigation

View a comprehensive listing of the firm’s relevant class action experience here. Additional representative matters in the banking and financial services context include:

• In re Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation – Defended investment / financial advisor in antitrust claims brought by over 20 municipalities relating to alleged bid-rigging in derivatives market.
• Jackson v. Wells Fargo Bank – Defended a consumer class action involving allegations of improper servicing of residential mortgages.
• Morris v. Wells Fargo – Defended consumer class action attacking bank’s flood insurance policies and procedures for residential mortgages.
• Jones v. ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Inc. – Defended class action brought against over 20 banks and mortgage companies alleging aiding and abetting a fraud perpetrated by a mortgage broker on hundreds of borrowers.
• Giles v. Wells Fargo, et al. – Defended RICO class action challenging various foreclosure practices.
• Kuhns v. Meridian Bancorp, Inc. – Defended to verdict a $30 million ERISA class action attacking the conversion of a profit-sharing plan to a defined benefit plan and successfully handled appeal.

Lender Liability and General Liability Actions

• Ducas Enterprises v. Sovereign Bank – Defended a $70 million lender liability claim for breach of commitment letter to finance the purchase of a business.
• Dixon v. M&T Bank – Defended claim that bank should have prevented younger siblings from “looting” mother’s account based on interpretation of will; elder siblings were sanctioned and required to pay attorneys’ fees.
• Brenner v. M&T Bank – Defended claim that bank trust officer had wrongfully advised co-trustee to divest long-standing multi-million dollar trust equity holdings; co-trustee ordered to reimburse bank for its attorneys’ fees of several hundred thousand dollars.
• vBank v. Check Express – Pursued a civil RICO claim to recover $2.9 million lost as a result of a check kiting scheme. Secured an $8.2 million judgment.
• Merola v. Wachovia Bank, N.A. – Defended against claim that bank wrongfully refused to redeem three certificates of deposit and seeking damages of $6 million, served a Rule 11 motion showing the baselessness of the claim based on plaintiff’s own documents, which led plaintiff to withdraw all claims with prejudice.
• Eagletech Communications v. VIST Bank – Defended federal and state RICO claims arising from the laundering of the proceeds of naked short sales of stock to an offshore bank.
• Calabrese & Sons, Inc. v. Commerce Bank/Harrisburg, N.A. – Defended a $5 million claim for breach of good faith and fair dealing and failure to lend.