Our Approach

We represent a wide variety of clients in litigation relating to the current financial crisis. Our clients in these unprecedented matters include leading global financial institutions, major private funds and other preeminent corporations from throughout the United States and around the world. Our litigators possess unique experience in highly complex financial investigations and litigation matters and can draw on resources and expertise from across the firm – in areas including securities and bank regulation, investment management, derivatives, insolvency and mergers and acquisitions.

Of Note

  • Our financial crisis work was profiled in The American Lawyer, which described Davis Polk as “the go-to firm” for matters related to the financial crisis because of its “bank regulatory and insolvency prowess underpinned by broad M&A and capital markets experience.” The article quotes a partner at a rival firm as saying: “If you look at the confluence of all those areas of expertise, it isn’t surprising that Davis Polk was tapped for these matters.”

Notable Matters

Much of our financial crisis-related litigation work is confidential because it arises in the context of non-public investigations and pre-litigation counseling. Nonetheless, the following are sample matters that have been publicly disclosed.

  • We represent the Board of Directors of Bank of America in connection with shareholder derivative cases relating to Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
  • We represent Morgan Stanley and certain of its officers and directors in lawsuits arising out of its announced $9.4 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 resulting from subprime-related trading writedowns – including a purported shareholder class action alleging fraud under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and SEC Rule 10b-5; a shareholder derivative suit under the Delaware General Corporation Law; and federal ERISA lawsuits.
  • We represent Morgan Stanley in purported class action lawsuits in the Southern District of New York, brought on behalf of investors who purchased residential mortgage-backed pass-through certificates underwritten by Morgan Stanley in 2006 and 2007. The plaintiff asserts claims under the Securities Act of 1933, alleging that the offering documents made false or misleading statements, or omitted to state material facts, concerning the underlying mortgage loans.
More >