The primary focus of Rodgin Cohen's practice is acquisitions, regulatory and securities law matters for major US and non-US banking and other financial institutions. He also represents The Clearing House, which is the association of 11 major banks.
In the acquisitions area, Mr Cohen has been engaged in most of the major bank acquisitions in the United States, including Toronto Dominion/Commerce, Bank of New York/Mellon Financial, Regions/AmSouth, Wachovia/Golden West, Wachovia/SouthTrust, Chase/Bank One, First Union/Wachovia, US Bancorp/Firstar, Wells Fargo/Norwest, Wells Fargo/First Interstate, Chemical/Chase, First Union/First Fidelity, Key/Society, NationsBank/C&S, and Bank of New York/Irving, as well as numerous other acquisitions. In cross-border and non-US transactions, he was engaged in Goldman Sachs/Sumitomo, Allianz/Dresdner, UBS/PaineWebber, Credit Suisse/DLJ, Société Générale/Paribas, Dexia/FSA, Mitsubishi/Bank of Tokyo, Credit Suisse/First Boston, Royal Bank of Canada/Bank of Montreal, and acquisitions or divestitures by Barclays Bank, National Westminster, Midland Bank, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Ireland and Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino. He has also worked on a number of major cross-industry and private equity acquisitions, including JPMorgan Chase/Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch/BlackRock, JC Flowers/Sallie Mae, Mellon/Dreyfus and NationsBank/Montgomery, as well as acquisitions in the insurance industry, including Anthem/WellPoint and Manulife/Hancock.
Mr Cohen provides corporate governance advice to a large number of financial and non-financial institutions, both regular clients and as special assignments.
Mr Cohen has worked on a wide variety of bank regulatory matters with the four banking regulatory agencies, as well as other governmental agencies, on behalf of many of the largest US and non-US financial institutions, and trade associations. These matters have included bank product and geographic powers, the Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering, restrictions on bank operations, insurance of bank deposits and the Community Reinvestment Act. He was a member of the Group of 30 Study Groups on Financial Institution Reporting (2003) and on Global Institutions, National Supervision and Systemic Risk (1997) and the New York Superintendent's Advisory Committee on Transnational Banking Institutions (1992), and participated in the bank negotiations to free the Iranian hostages.
In the securities area, Mr Cohen worked on the first public offering in the United States by a non-US bank (Barclays) and on a number of other offerings in the United States by non-US banks. He has also worked on public offerings by Citicorp, Chase, Chemical, Morgan Guaranty, Security Pacific, First Interstate, Bank of New York, BancOne, Mellon, First Union, Shawmut, Wachovia, First Bank System, Continental Illinois, First Fidelity, MBNA, Republic New York, KeyCorp and Norwest. Most recently, he has worked on major capital raising activities by a number of major financial institutions.
He has also participated in the resolution of most major bank failures, including Continental, First City, Southeast, Franklin National and Bank of New England and, at the recommendation of the Federal Reserve, the Ohio thrift crisis. During the past several years, Mr Cohen has devoted substantial time to regulatory, law enforcement and internal investigations of financial institutions.
Mr Cohen currently serves on the IIF Special Committee for a Strategic Dialogue for Effective Regulation and has recently been appointed to the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession assembled by Treasury Secretary Paulson, The New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services and The Financial Services Roundtable's Blue Ribbon Commission on Enhancing Competitiveness. He is a frequent speaker on banking law matters and the author of numerous articles on issues in commercial banking.
(Miami)