Banking Law

Cases under review after ‘hero’ police officer was found to have staged his own suicide

Initially hailed as a fallen hero who was gunned down on duty in suburban Chicago, an Illinois police officer has since been found to have shot himself to death in a suicide staged to look like a homicide. The determination that Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz committed suicide on…

Nov 12, 2015 1:00 PM CST

Ban on credit-card surcharges is a free-speech violation, 11th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has struck down a Florida law barring merchants from imposing a surcharge on customers for credit card use. The law, which allows discounts for cash, violates the First Amendment because it targets businesses that want to call price differences based on credit card use a surcharge…

Nov 6, 2015 9:00 AM CST

Goodwin Procter opens Frankfurt office with 4 partners from Ashurst

Goodwin Procter an office in Frankfurt, Germany, with four Ashurst partners. It is the firm’s second European office, David Hashmall, who serves as chairman of the U.S.-based firm, said the German outpost resulted from needs of clients of the firm’s London office, Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business blog reports. It…

Nov 5, 2015 3:25 PM CST

Debt-buying industry and lax court review are burying defendants in defaults

After more than four decades as a commercial litigator, Ward Benshoof was shocked at what he learned two years ago while handling a post-judgment debt-collection case. What had been accepted as evidence seemed to have no more substance than the shadow of smoke. And as he later learned, it also…

Nov 1, 2015 4:20 AM CST

Dinsmore opens Philadelphia office, plucks partners from local competitors

Less than two months after entering Michigan and establishing a suburban Detroit office by merging with a 17-lawyer intellectual property boutique, Dinsmore & Shohl is growing again. The 600-attorney firm has now opened a six-attorney office in Philadelphia, plucking partners from competitors’ offices, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal. The attorney…

Oct 22, 2015 10:25 AM CDT

Former House Speaker Hastert will plead guilty in hush money case, his lawyers say

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has agreed to plead guilty in a case alleging he paid $3.5 million in hush money, his lawyers disclosed in court on Thursday. Hastert is expected to plead guilty on Oct. 28, report the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. The written plea agreement…

Oct 15, 2015 10:00 AM CDT

Consumer financial agency considers rules barring companies from blocking class actions

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering proposed rules that would bar consumer financial companies from using arbitration clauses to block class actions. CFPB Director Richard Cordray announced the proposals in a press release, saying companies are using arbitration clauses “as a free pass to sidestep the courts and avoid…

Oct 9, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Dewey juror goes to the emergency room; judge will ask for partial verdict

Updated: A juror in the trial of three former leaders of Dewey & LeBoeuf reported that she was in the emergency room on Wednesday after experiencing vertigo. Judge Robert Stolz of Manhattan said he spoke with the juror and she expected to return to court in the afternoon, the New…

Oct 7, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Upscale restaurants frequented by Dewey lawyers play role in trial

If jurors feel hunger pangs during the trial of three former Dewey & LeBoeuf leaders, there’s good reason: Upscale restaurants are a backdrop for meetings discussing management decisions in the alleged conspiracy to defraud lenders. Charged in the alleged plot are former chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine,…

Aug 10, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Suits blame Simpson Thacher and JPMorgan for $1.5 billion error

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is facing two lawsuits for allegedly failing to spot an error that caused investors to lose their security interest in a $1.5 billion loan to General Motors. The suits, filed in Manhattan federal court last Thursday, come after a federal appeals court refused to reconsider a…

Aug 3, 2015 8:47 AM CDT

New credit union seeking to serve pot businesses sues after an adverse decision

A credit union created to handle money from Colorado’s pot businesses is suing after a Federal Reserve Bank refused to open a master account that the financial institution needs to operate. South Carolina litigator Mark Mason sued on Thursday on behalf of the Fourth Corner Credit Union. The defendants in…

Jul 31, 2015 1:35 PM CDT

Bank has standing to challenge constitutionality of federal consumer agency, appeals court says

A federal appeals court has ruled that a bank has standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday in the suit by the State National Bank of Big Spring, report the National Law…

Jul 27, 2015 11:10 AM CDT

‘Disgrace to the entire legal profession’ gets time in 2 federal fraud cases

A California attorney was sentenced to a total of nearly three years in prison last week in unrelated fraud cases. On July 20, Gino Paul Pietro got two years in a sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, for helping a client in a loan scheme, Courthouse News…

Jul 27, 2015 10:15 AM CDT

Meet a lawyer trying to guide the all-cash cannabis industry into the federal banking system

South Carolina litigator Mark Mason knew as much about the marijuana industry as any other middle-aged, law-abiding lawyer. That is, until his son called from Denver asking for help. Now Mason, principal in the five-lawyer Mason Law Firm in Mount Pleasant, is leading the charge to give Colorado's all-cash cannabis…

Jul 1, 2015 6:05 AM CDT

UK court says ex-Dewey leader must repay $540K capital loan; he hopes US court will cancel it

Noting that a former practice group leader at Dewey & LeBoeuf was “not a naive or vulnerable consumer,” a U.K. judge on Tuesday said that he is bound by the terms of his $540,000 capital loan and must repay Barclays. Londell McMillan was “unwilling to accept what was plain on…

Jun 9, 2015 12:35 PM CDT