"We help banks, savings associations and other financial institutions utilize the law to achieve their strategic objectives."

The dynamics of the financial institutions industry require knowledgeable, experienced and nimble legal counsel.

The economic and regulatory climates for the financial institutions industry are changing daily and often in unpredictable ways. To survive and prosper in this environment, financial institutions must proactively prepare for the unexpected and be prepared to immediately react to changing circumstances when opportunities and/or challenges appear. That is why Schiff Hardin’s particular capabilities and strengths are vital to financial institutions clients. When it comes to the complex maze of legal issues financial institutions face, we have been there and we have done that.

Schiff Hardin's legal approach

We are proactive and lead projects deliberatively. Lawyers are often criticized for their passivity, equivocation, unresponsiveness and lack of business acumen. We get hired because we differentiate ourselves in the first meeting with the CEO and then we continue to perform for years and even decades after we are hired. We help clients define the legal problems they have and then go on to solve them. We bring our clients strategic opportunities and then help them evaluate, document and close the deal. Understanding our clients’ business, financial statements and the industry they operate in sets us apart, but it is how we gained that knowledge that matters. Many of our senior financial institution lawyers have worked in top executive positions in publicly traded banks and know the stress and strain of day-to-day operations, how to manage people and projects, and set and execute a strategic course. We earn more business because we are responsive and committed to exceptional client service. Our financial institutions practice is not growing nationally because new banks are coming on line that need first-time counsel, but rather because we are winning business from our competitors using a different approach – a strategic approach that integrates with our legal skills and know-how.

We have offices in key U.S. financial locations.

In addition to our longstanding presence in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta, Schiff Hardin also now has an office in Charlotte, the second-largest financial center in the country.

This is what we do.

• Mergers and acquisitions, including FDIC-assisted acquisitions
• Capital-raising, including initial public offerings, senior and subordinated notes, and other public and private offerings of debt and equity
• Exiting the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program
• Anti-takeover planning
• Branch purchases and sales
• Corporate governance
• Federal and state regulatory compliance including securities and commodities as well as banking
• Lending, including commercial lending, mezzanine financing, project financing and loan workouts and restructurings
• Consumer privacy
• Employee benefits/executive compensation
• Labor and employment
• De novo banks
• Vendor agreements
• Strategic ventures
• Non-banking activities
• New product development
• Trust department counseling, acquisition and disposition
• Trust and investment management litigation
• Charter conversions

This is why we can do it better than smaller "financial institutions boutiques."

Our Financial Institutions Group has a particularly deep bench in connection with virtually all of the legal services our financial institutions clients require. Schiff Hardin has marquee and national practices in Corporate and Securities, Litigation, Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditors’ Rights, Tax and Finance, just to name a few. We employ a "one-team approach" with dedicated groups of attorneys for specific clients. These teams gain substantial institutional knowledge about each client’s particular needs and ways of doing things. That way we do not have to reinvent the wheel on new matters, and we can hit the ground running on virtually any new client matter.