On February 9 Andrew Ceresney was still in his office at 2:30 a.m. The Debevoise & Plimpton partner had been working for the better part of a year, along with a raft of other lawyers, to negotiate a deal between federal and state attorneys general and a handful of big banks. The banks were accused of “robo-signing”allowing employees to approve legal documents without proper reviewand other foreclosure errors. Five banks had made a $25 billion proposal, but only got 40 attorneys general to sign on. Now, three days later, after further negotiations with crucial states like California and New York, a final draft that the others would approve was circulating by e-mail. “That’s when I knew we were finally there,” Ceresney says. The settlement marked what the U.S. Department of Justice calls the largest federal/state civil settlement ever obtained. As part of the settlement, the five banks that agreed to the dealAlly Financial Inc., Bank of America Corporation, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Companywill be required to implement new mortgage servicing standards and dedicate $20 billion of the settlement to borrowers for financial relief.
On paper, Ceresney’s client was JPMorgan. But lawyers involved in the negotiations say that Ceresney played a bigger role than that, acting as the primary go-between for the banks during talks with the Justice Department and state attorneys general. Amid a group of lawyers that included H. Rodgin Cohen of Sullivan & Cromwell and Ceresney’s partner Mary Jo White, the task of coordinating the banks’ positions and getting the feds and states on board with their proposals fell to the 40-year-old New Yorker.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
