Financial Services

As increased regulations continue to complicate financial transactions, industry participants require sophisticated legal counsel to navigate the changing environment and respond to opportunities and challenges. With more than 500 members throughout the firm, Holland & Knight's Financial Services Team has the depth and experience to effectively serve borrowers and lenders in all of their legal needs, including:

• Corporate Services: We can assist you in conducting all aspects of your business operations, from corporate governance and transactions to mergers and acquisitions and data privacy and security, while ensuring that your activities are in full compliance with relevant regulations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act.
• Financial Services: As merger and acquisition (M&A) activity increases across many business segments, the demand for capital likewise increases. Our team can assist you in negotiating, documenting and completing every type of financial transaction, including commercial lending, private equity, venture capital, structured finance and public finance. We can also help protect your interests through workouts and restructuring of problem loans.
• Insurance: Directors and officers of financial institutions face risks to their personal assets from multiple sources and state-of-the-art insurance protection is more important than ever. Our team can assist you in evaluating, negotiating and enforcing your directors and officers (D&O) fiduciary, employment practices and other management liability insurance policies.
• International: As the global marketplace continues to fuel expansion opportunities around the around the world, we can assist you with all aspects of growing or maintaining your international operations, from transactional needs to mergers and acquisitions. In addition, we can also help your organization to prevent and address allegations of fraud and corruption such as anti-money laundering and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• Labor, Employment and Benefits: We can guide your organization through common employment issues such as policies and training as well as more complex issues such as executive compensation, which has taken on added significance due to changing regulations.
• Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Heightened regulations mean increased investigations and enforcement actions for participants in the financial services industry. We can defend your interests in any type of investigation and litigation, including those initiated by or involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Department of Justice, antitrust, RICO, consumer fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and regulatory compliance.
• Public Policy & Regulation: More than 80 individuals, including lawyers, senior public affairs professionals and legislative assistants with prior Capitol Hill, executive branch, and regulatory experience, are dedicated to the Public Policy & Regulation Group. Our group is a strong bipartisan team with deep ties throughout Washington, D.C. Our firm also maintains a federal Political Action Committee (PAC), which in recent election cycles has ranked among the top law firms in the total contributions given to candidates for Congress. These combined experiences and political reach of our team enables us to provide crucial advice necessary in complex policy areas and with required access to key decision-makers from both parties. Our financial services professionals offer clients in-depth understanding of government relations and advocacy; significant legislative and technical knowledge of financial services; and deep experience in strategic communications, media, and grassroots/tops management. Our wealth of experience spans a diverse set of clients on financial services issues, ranging from traditional banking, insurance, private equity, consumer finance and credit/lending, commodities, all the way to data privacy and cybersecurity. What sets us apart is our combination of subject matter knowledge, significant relationships, and the creativity and strategic vision that we bring to clients over the course of our engagements.
• Real Estate: Most financial services companies require brick and mortar locations and our team can help you with the acquisition, development, leasing and sale of the land and facilities required for your operations.
• White Collar Defense and Investigations: With government investigations on the rise, compliance programs aimed at preventing regulatory violations are critical for companies engaged in the financial services industry. Our team can help you develop and implement such programs, and we can also defend your organization against allegations of fraud, corruption and money laundering.