K&L Gates has created a new cross-practice task force to help clients address questions and allegations relating to the joint federal and state initiative to form an RMBS Working Group.
The new unit is called the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
The group’s formation comes after the recent introduction of the RMBS Working Group as part of the Obama Administration’s enforcement response to the financial crisis.
The new group includes the firm’s lawyers from its securities enforcement, white collar, litigation, financial services, internal investigation, and insurance coverage practice areas.
The task force is involved in formulating coordinated defense strategies to address allegations of RMBS fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and other types of financial fraud or discrimination alleged by the government.
The core group comprises over 50 lawyers from more than a dozen of the K&L Gates’ U.S. offices
Now that federal and state governments are coordinating their enforcement activities along various disciplines, it is essential for the industry to respond in kind,” said Laurence Platt, a financial services practice area leader in K&L Gates’ Washington, D.C. office. “K&L Gates has been at the forefront of representing clients in the mortgage industry, and we are mobilizing our cross disciplinary resources to address these enforcement issues in a vertically integrated way.
“The establishment of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force reflects this firm’s one-company, one-team mentality,” said Michael Missal, a policy and regulatory practice area leader also based in K&L Gates’ Washington, D.C. office
