Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt provides comprehensive legal services to financial institutions throughout the Pacific Northwest, including community banks, national banks, savings and loans, credit unions, branches of foreign banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies, commercial finance companies, and equipment lessors.  We serve as general counsel to some of our clients and as special counsel on specific matters for others.

Client Services
Our financial institutions practice draws from specialists across various practice areas.

• Corporate Counsel:  strategic planning; corporate governance (including guidelines, committee charters, codes of ethics and advising on fiduciary duties); advising to troubled banks; annual proxy statements; proxy contests; and special board counsel
• Mergers & Acquisitions, De Novo, and Restructuring:  mergers; branch acquisitions; de novo formations; holding company formations; and Subchapter S conversions
• Capital Formation/Securities:  public and private offerings; trust preferred; debt instruments; SEC reporting and compliance (including periodic reports, proxy statements, Section 16 reporting for directors and officers, insider trading policies); and market listing requirements
• Executive Compensation & Employee Benefit Plans:  employment, severance, change-in-control, and noncompetition agreements; equity incentive plans; employee stock purchase plans; 401(k) plans; and nonqualified deferred compensation; compensation committee advising
• Employment Advising: advising employers related to compliance with state and federal employment regulations, hirings, RIFs, and severance arrangements; employment litigation
• Lending:  loan documentation; drafting of form loan documents
• Loan Workouts and Creditors' Rights:  loan workouts; judicial and nonjudicial foreclosure of security interests; personal guaranty litigation; bankruptcy; and lender liability litigation
• Trusts:  reviewing trust documents for trust department and advising on trust administration
• Tax Services:  federal and state tax support and planning; Low-Income Housing Tax Credits
• Corporate Real Estate:  bank facility real estate acquisitions, sales, and leasing
• Environmental: risk evaluation in real estate transactions.