PRACTICES
PRACTICES

Banking

For more than 75 years, banks and other financial institutions have called on us for counsel and guidance in a range of transactions. From organizing holding companies and representing banks in mergers and acquisitions, to advising on defensive strategies, going private transactions and tenders offers, Gordon Arata Montgomery Barnett attorneys have counseled banks in all aspects of the regulatory process.

Recent engagements have included:

  • Advising a Louisiana bank holding company in its merger to form a bank holding company with over $600 million in consolidated assets.
  • Guiding a regional bank in the formation and registration of a factoring fund.
  • Counseling a Louisiana private trust company in its conversion to a public trust company and related reorganization.
  • Representing a Louisiana bank holding company in its proxy materials and shareholder meeting required to convert to a Subchapter S Corporation for tax purposes

We have represented banks before and prepared applications for submission to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions. We also advise banks on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting requirements and assist in reviewing proxy statements and other SEC filings. We additionally guide them with regard to bank advertising compliance.

Our attorneys counsel bank officers and directors on matters affecting officer and director liability and provide advice on executive compensation, employment contracts, severance arrangements, change of control agreements and similar plans enabling executives to manage ongoing operations as well as deal with unique, one-time occurrences.

We are experienced in representing trust departments of financial institutions in litigation as well as transactional matters. We represent banks in their capacity as trustee, in breach of fiduciary duty claims, securities litigation (both as plaintiffs and defendants) and in compliance matters, including class actions. We routinely advise bank trust departments on trust management and administration issues. We have prepared title curative documents and advised on oil and gas issues related to assets under administration. We also represent banks in their capacity as executor of estates and in administration of the probate estate.

Gordon Arata Montgomery Barnett attorneys have counseled and represented banks in recurring risk management and casualty matters, including general coverage questions, premises liability, subrogation and workers compensation. In addition, the firm has considerable experience in ERISA benefits litigation.

We have extensive experience in representing lenders, borrowers, guarantors and other parties in major and complex commercial financing transactions of virtually every kind, including oil and gas financings, construction loans, credit enhancement in connection with public bond issuances and commercial loans secured by interests in all types of collateral in or offshore Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere, including:

  • Real estate
  • Oil and gas assets
  • Equipment
  • Inventory
  • Accounts receivable
  • Agricultural products
  • Fiber-optic cables and related rights-of-ways
  • Vessels
  • Leasehold estates

We regularly provide title services required for the financing, acquisition and other transactions we handle. Several of our attorneys are licensed Louisiana title insurance agents for national title insurance companies. Through our firm’s title insurance agency, Current Title Agency, L.L.C., we are available to write title policies to owners and lenders and review and advise banks on title commitments and policies issued by other agents.

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