Practice Areas & Industries: Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

We have extensive litigation experience representing state and federally chartered banks and other financial institutions. Because our sole focus as a firm is on trial matters, our banking industry clients can be assured that their lawsuits and arbitrations will never face a conflict involving borrower representation or one of our lawyers becoming a fact witness for having drafted or negotiated loan agreements. As lawyers who have tried cases for financial institutions, we have an in-depth understanding of the industry's regulatory and financial requirements and practical experience with the dramatic changes in the structure and management of lenders across the country, and especially in Texas, during the past three decades.

Our lawyers represent banking clients in the full range of lawsuits and commercial disputes that industry participants typically face as plaintiffs or defendants, including:

• Collecting large debts
• Loan participation disputes
• Lender liability claims
• Usury
• Fidelity bond claims
• Federal and state securities law claims
• Deposit account claims
• Bank tying act claims
• Defending and enforcing letters of credit
• Trust and fiduciary claims
• Federal securities laws
• State and federal antitrust laws
• Participation agreements
• Judicial foreclosures
• Allegations of fraud or breach of fiduciary duty

Our lawyers understand that financial institutions of all kinds are subject to a complex maze of regulations and statutory obligations with regard to their lending practices. We have represented clients in disputes involving usury, bank anti-tying, trust and fiduciary duty obligations, the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, civil RICO actions, and actions alleging breach of various other state or federal banking laws or regulations.

In one instance we defended a finance company against some 600 claims that the company had violated the Texas Consumer Credit Code. We also represented a California mortgage company in a suit claiming fraud and violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

Our attorneys have also represented financial institution officers and directors in civil and criminal investigations conducted by state and federal regulatory authorities, including the FBI, FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). In one notable instance, we defended a controlling officer and chairman of a federal bank holding company against an attempt by the OCC to recover civil monetary penalties. We have also defended bank officers and directors against attacks by regulators, shareholders, and other financial institutions that were either joint venture partners or participants in bank transactions.

Not all of our banking litigation is on the defense side. Frequently our attorneys have assisted banking clients in enforcing their claims against borrowers or other entities to recover or protect the assets of the institution in what some call "bet the bank" litigation. In a recent and highly complex example, we represented the Estonian Union Bank in U.S. District Court in New York as a plaintiff against an international bank holding company. Our client sued over the international bank's alleged breaches of fiduciary duties, resulting in loss of the proceeds of a substantial international payment.

Because we have such strong experience in banking litigation, it is equally the case that not all of our work is for private sector clients. During the bank failures of the late 1980s, several of our partners were retained to represent federal banking regulators in the collapse of such institutions as Gibraltar Savings, First RepublicBank, MBank, University Savings, and others. One of our partners oversaw the combined receiverships for Gibraltar Savings Association, First Texas Savings Association, and three other Texas thrifts, in what was until then the largest savings and loan receivership in the history of the FSLIC. The resulting litigation involved approximately two hundred separate lawsuits on behalf of the government.