Claudia V. Swhier is a partner in the Indianapolis, Indiana office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP. She is a member of the firm's Financial Institutions Practice Group and a member of the firm's Management Committee. Ms. Swhier practices primarily in the financial institutions area, although she also has significant securities and corporate law experience. She serves a number of banks, thrifts and credit unions, many of which are publicly traded. She provides the full spectrum of legal services in the regulatory compliance area to them. She also handles mergers and acquisitions, holding company formations and financings for client financial institutions. She has represented a number of financial institutions with respect to supervisory agreements and cease and desist orders. Ms. Swhier has helped a number of mutual thrifts in their conversion to stock form, and has advised a number of non-financial institution clients and underwriters in connection with initial and secondary public offerings. Ms. Swhier, along with another attorney with the firm, served as a member of the attorney drafting group selected by the Indiana Legislature's Interim Study Committee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit to prepare a complete recodification of Indiana's banking laws. Ms. Swhier has spoken frequently before banking and thrift institution trade groups and at various attorney continuing legal education programs. She has been listed in Indiana Super Lawyers and in The Best Lawyers in America for her banking expertise for a number of years, and was selected as Best Lawyers' 2011 Indianapolis Banking Lawyer of the Year and Best Lawyers' 2012 Indianapolis Financial Services Regulation Law Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Swhier graduated magna cum laude in 1972 from Yale University and received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1975. She was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review from 1973 to 1975. Ms. Swhier was born in Mineola, New York, and moved to Indianapolis after graduating from law school to join Barnes & Thornburg in 1975. She became a partner at Barnes & Thornburg in 1982. She is a member of the Indiana State and Indianapolis Bar Associations and is admitted to practice in the state of Indiana. She is active in her church, Roberts Park United Methodist Church, and serves on several committees at her condominium development. She also is a volunteer for Child Advocates, Inc., which serves as guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. |