Crowell & Moring advises traditional financial institutions, technology start-ups, venture capital and private equity firms, and other lenders and funds on transactional, regulatory, and contested matters. We work with clients to protect their operations and maximize their assets. Our Financial Services Practice is experienced at structuring a wide range of traditional and innovative corporate and finance transactions, drawing on the firm’s industry knowledge, deep regulatory foundation, and understanding of emerging technologies and their legal implications. We also draw on our investigatory and litigation strength when challenges arise.
Our core services areas include:
- Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Insolvency: Crowell’s lawyers have a deep and successful record of handling a broad array of bankruptcy, restructuring and insolvency matters across international boundaries. Our restructuring team across the US, UK and Asia regularly advise on both domestic and cross-border matters. Many of our lawyers are recognized industry leaders with decades of experience in all situations arising where a company is in financial distress. Our lawyers partner with, and are trusted advisors to, all stakeholders in a distressed scenario, including lenders, investors, creditors (secured and unsecured), receivers and bankruptcy trustees, insolvency practitioners, insurers, special servicers, and companies as well as their directors and fiduciaries. Our expertise includes purchase and sale of distressed assets, debt and bankruptcy claims, restructuring and advisory work for lenders, corporate borrowers, private equity houses and large investment institutions, in and out of court bankruptcy and insolvency procedures (including formal moratorium and restructuring plans), bankruptcy/insolvency litigation, official and ad hoc creditor committee work, fraud and asset recovery work and mass tort and asbestos bankruptcy matters. We are well versed in our clients’ business interests and risk tolerance, permitting us to offer cost-effective, pragmatic, bespoke and creative solutions to maximize financial recoveries, mitigate risk and achieve our clients’ goals.
- Corporate, Transactional, and Finance: Companies in all stages—from emerging to mature companies and those that are pursuing an exit strategy—grapple with complicated corporate and financing matters that can quickly derail transactions or other business dealings. Our lawyers offer wide-ranging corporate guidance to financial services companies on issues including asset management, commercial finance (often cross-border) and lending, commercial transactions, FinTech (investments, M&A, and joint ventures), investment funds, Islamic finance and Shari’ah compliance, securities, and tax.
- Litigation & Dispute Resolution: Financial institutions inevitably face counterparty risks, default issues, and regulatory hurdles. Our team includes lawyers who have successfully acted for financial clients across the world to resolve complex cross-border disputes, as well as former government prosecutors and regulators who have first-hand, cutting-edge experience in today’s challenging regulatory environment. Working together, we have protected and repatriated billions in assets for clients through worldwide freezing injunctions, disclosure orders, and other ancillary and tracing remedies using local courts and arbitral bodies.
- Regulatory & Enforcement: The financial services sector is among the most heavily-regulated. Our team has decades of combined experience as federal and state prosecutors, regulatory enforcement attorneys, and financial regulators, and uses this experience to assist our institutional and individual clients in sensitive, high-stakes matters involving anti-money laundering (AML), economic sanctions, anti-bribery/anti-corruption, state and federal money transmission, banking, investment company/advisers matters, and every variety of white-collar crime and regulatory enforcement.
- Blockchain & Financial Services Technology: Participating in a blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) network creates concerns that must be identified and resolved to ensure maximum return on investment, the security and stability of mission-critical systems and data, and compliance with complex laws and regulations. For our financial services clients, we counsel on the legal and regulatory issues facing both emerging and established companies that invest in and incorporate blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), digital assets/cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum), and DeFi or de-centralized finance into their business, guiding them on matters involving securities and CFTC regulatory and compliance matters, cybersecurity and data privacy, FinTech/regulatory tech, and state and federal payments/money transmission laws.