Jones Walker LLP

Illustrative services to the banking and financial services industry include:

• Advising banks and bank holding companies on regulatory, compliance, and operational matters
• Advising on investment banking underwriting activities, fairness opinions, engagement letters, and regulatory compliance
• Advising strategic and financial lenders on acquiring, holding, and trading distressed debt before, during, and after bankruptcy
• Assisting with matters relating to direct, secondary, and fund-of-fund investments
• Counseling private equity, venture, distressed debt, and hedge fund formation and related Investment Advisors Act and Investment Company Act compliance
• Drafting and/or litigating employment contracts, bonus and commission agreements, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements
• Establishing de novo banking institutions
• Establishing de novo insurance institutions
• Handling all employment-related litigation (discrimination, harassment, retaliation, FLSA misclassification, and other employment-related claims)
• Handling bankruptcy and creditors' rights matters
• Handling EEOC and other administrative charges and disputes
• Handling expansion financing and exits
• Intramural contractual arrangements among general partners, limited partners, and management
• Negotiating debt financing/lending
• Negotiating, drafting, and litigating depository agreements of controlled assets (DACA)
• Protecting directors and officers from potential liability through insurance and indemnification plans
• Providing general labor and employment preventive and compliance advice—counseling employers in the development of personnel policies and procedures, advising employer in handling of employment disputes and issues at the pre-litigation stage in an effort to avoid litigation or minimize exposure, including matters under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII, Age Discrimination in Employment, and other federal and state employment laws
• Providing government advisory and relations services, including lobbying
• Providing representation in several types of litigation
• Representing clients in U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour audits regarding minimum wage and overtime compliance
• Representing community banking organizations in a variety of formation, operational, regulatory, and transactional activities
• Representing executive compensation plans and structures
• Structuring labor and employment policies and procedures to minimize litigation against banks
• Structuring operational and regulatory advice to health, life, property and casualty, title, and financial insurance and reinsurance companies, MGAs, brokers, and administrators

Diversity Mission Statement

Jones Walker LLP strives to encourage, foster and increase diversity across the firm. To this end, the Diversity Committee has adopted the goal of fostering a work environment that welcomes different perspectives, backgrounds and life experiences and ensures that an individual’s professional growth, experience or advancement is not limited because of gender, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability or other similar factor.

Purposes of the Diversity Committee

• To increase awareness of the importance of diversity within the firm and of the means by which diversity enriches the firm;
• To encourage all lawyers and staff members to develop mutual respect and appreciation for different perspectives and backgrounds; and
• To develop and implement strategies to assist the firm in recruiting, retaining and advancing staff and lawyers from diverse backgrounds.
• Jones Walker values all employees who contribute positively to the firm’s practice, the firm’s environment, and the greater community we serve.

In 2009, Jones Walker was named to MultiCultural Law Magazine’s list of "Top 100 Law Firms for Women," part of a series of listings of the top 100 law firms for diversity. The listings are compiled based on diversity statistics derived from annual surveys that the publication sends to law firms with more than 100 attorneys.