Überblick
Banks Brown represents clients in complex commercial litigation and disputes, and has extensive experience in the defense of class action lawsuits.
Banks represents parties in numerous complex commercial arbitrations involving claims under the securities and the environmental laws and in sizeable disputes over sales contracts for crude oil, refined products and refinery performance, and steel products and steel manufacturing. In appropriate cases, he also represents parties in insurance and reinsurance disputes, admiralty arbitrations, and trusts and estates disputes.
Early in his career, Banks represented the American Stock Exchange in shareholder actions under Section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act, numerous consumer class actions under the now-defunct Department of Energy price controls on oil and gas, and a decade-long series of class actions arising out of Gulf Oil Corporation’s tender offer for the stock of Cities Service Corporation. To date, he continues to represent parties involved in complex litigation. As a by-product of his extensive litigation experience, Banks has a deep working knowledge of cost, fee and risk analysis.
Banks also serves as outside general counsel for the American Hotel & Lodging Association and the Travel Business Roundtable, prior to its merger into the US Travel Association.
Ausgewählte Referenzmandate
- As general counsel to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, advising on member and organizational concerns such as labor negotiations, Patriot Act and financial control regulations, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, immigration issues related to seasonal employees, hotel safety procedures and policies (including in relation to possible terrorist attacks), conversion of transient hotel rooms into housing, governmental investigations of guests, data protection, credit card fraud, tourism funding initiatives, brand protection, franchise disputes and hotel management contract disputes
- Represented the Gramercy Park Hotel (NY) and its owner and operator, GPH Management and RFR Hotel Group, in a lawsuit over the hotel’s alleged failure to accommodate people with disabilities; McDermott secured a settlement favorable to the client
- Represented Appvion, Inc., a Wisconsin paper company, in a commercial American Arbitration Association (AAA) arbitration between Appvion and NCR, Inc., and also involving the B.A.T. Industries (BAT), part of the British American Tobacco group of companies (which was not joined as a party), in arbitration and, ultimately, settlement of a dispute involving alleged contractual obligations for a river clean up and claims, counterclaims and cross-claims in excess of $300 million
- Represented Starr International USA Investments and C.V. Starr & Co. Trust in a dispute with Ernst & Young (E&Y) in a $200 million Lehman Brothers-related litigation alleging that E&Y violated the federal securities laws because E&Y, in its role as the auditor for Lehman Brothers, failed to disclose or correct Lehman’s improper accounting for certain transactions that rendered its public disclosures and offering materials materially false and misleading
- Representing a major oil company in a maritime arbitration alleging breach of charter by a ship owner arising out of the grounding of a tanker on the Hudson River
Auszeichnungen
- Chambers USA 2015-2016
- Academy of Hospitality Industry Attorneys, Distinguished Service Award 2010
- Anthony G. Marshall Award for Pioneering and Continuous Contribution to Hospitality Law 2006
Qualifikation
Education
University of Virginia School of Law, JD, 1977
Harvard University, BA, cum laude, 1974
Admissions
New York
