Kathy D. Patrick, 

$8.5 Billion Countrywide RMBS Settlement with Bank of America

Lead counsel for Countrywide residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) representation and warrant claims on behalf of our institutional investor clients.

In 2010, Gibbs & Bruns was engaged by 22 of the largest institutional investors, including financial giants PIMCO, BlackRock, MetLife and others, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), to assert claims against Countrywide and its corporate parent Bank of America relating to representation and warranty violations (“put-backs”) and mortgage servicing claims at issue in 530 Countrywide residential mortgage securitization trusts.  Our clients engaged us to enforce their rights, through the governing agreements, to compel the repurchase of ineligible mortgages that do not conform to the representations and warranties concerning the collateral in the RMBS trusts.

On June 29, 2011 we announced that the firm, on behalf of its clients, had reached an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America resolving all mortgage put-back and servicing claims relating to the 530 trusts.  The settlement provides not only the $8.5 billion cash payment to the trusts, but also requires Bank of America to make mortgage servicing improvements that will streamline the servicing of the 770,000 mortgages at issue in the trusts, improvements that various market sources suggest provide as much as several billion dollars of additional value to the trusts.  The settlement also requires Bank of America to cure certain mortgage document issues, and provides the 530 trusts (and consequently the investors in those trusts, including our clients), with a full indemnity for any value lost in connection with mortgages in the trusts as a result of certain mortgage documentation deficiencies.  

The settlement received worldwide top billing in the financial press.  On June 29, 2011, The New York Times reported it as “likely to be the single biggest settlement tied to the subprime mortgage boom and the subsequent financial crisis of 2008.”  The Wall Street Journal labeled the deal a “mammoth settlement” by a group of “high-profile investors” and as the “turning point in Wall Street’s epic struggle with the fallout from the financial crisis.”  An analyst for Credit Agricole, quoted in The New York Times, stated that the settlement is “the most significant step since the financial crisis that helps” in “improving the economy.”

Gibbs & Bruns is currently prosecuting the court approval of the settlement.

ADDITIONAL REPRESENTATIONS
Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs

• Huntsman Corporation – counsel for Huntsman in suit against Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank in connection with the failure to fund a $15 billion merger between Huntsman and Hexion
• NCFE  – counsel for holders of $1.6 billion in Notes issued by NCFE
• PIMCO/RALI case involving $500 million in RMBS securities
• Countrywide – counsel to holders of 25% of the voting rights in over $40 billion in Countrywide securitizations
• NSM Steel Thailand and Mid-American Waste cases
• Co-lead counsel in Texas Prison Bonds trial
• Fleming Post Confirmation Trust

Lead Counsel for Defendants

• Lead counsel for former Outside Directors of Enron in 100+ securities, investigative and regulatory actions pending against them
• Former Outside Directors of Westar Energy
• Landry’s bondholders in defeating ex parte injunction, issued by United States District Court in Galveston, that prohibited acceleration and enforcement of $400 million in notes
• Major New York law firms in legal malpractice actions

Pro Bono

• Lead Counsel for City of Houston in defense of suits attacking anti-smoking, concrete crushing, and air pollution ordinances
• In re Calvin Burdine, tried initial state habeas proceeding which established that trial counsel slept through much of Burdine’s criminal trial.  Death sentence ultimately vacated in subsequent proceedings handled by successor counsel.
• Various confidential representations of pastors and seminarians in matters involving conflicts over church governance.
• Confidential representation of synodical authorities in matters relating to allegations of sexual misconduct

Named “Overall Female Litigator of the Year” and “Texas Litigator of the Year,” Benchmark Litigation Inaugural Awards - South, 2012

Named to Leading Trial Lawyer list by Legal 500, 2011

Named to Winning Women by Texas Lawyer, 2011

One of 20 Texas litigators and appellate lawyers recognized for prevailing in high-stakes cases and having statewide and national impact

Named to Legal Media Group's World's Leading Litigation Lawyers, 2010

Listed in Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2006-2011

Named a top-tier Leading Individual for Securities Litigation, Texas, since 2006

Named on Nationwide Securities Litigation Leading Lawyers List, 2010-2011

Named an Extraordinary Women in Texas Law by Texas Lawyer, 2008

One of 30 women recognized for excellence in the legal profession in Texas

Listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2008-2012

Named in the areas of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Securities Law

Listed in Legal Media's Guide: Benchmark Litigation, 2009-2012

Recognized for expertise in Complex Commercial, Securities and Legal Malpractice matters

Named a Top Litigator in Legal Media’s Benchmark Plaintiff, 2012

Named a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Law and Politics, 2003-2011

Named to "Top 50 Women" Texas Super Lawyer List, 2010

Listed in PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook, 2008-2012

Named a “Highly Recommended Individual” in Commercial & Securities Litigation

Listed in PLC’s Cross-Border Dispute Resolution Handbook, 2011

Named a “Leading Dispute Resolution Lawyer”

Named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America List, 2010-2011

Listed in Who’s Who Legal, 2007-2010

Recognized for expertise in Securities and Legal Malpractice matters

Speaker/Author, “Overview of Contract Claims: Residential Mortgage Backed Securitizations,” State Bar of Texas: Suing, Defending and Negotiating with Financial Institutions (Chapter 17), February 9-10, 2012, Houston, TX

Panelist, “Mortgage Litigation,” American Securitization Forum, January 24, 2012, Las Vegas, NV

Panelist, “The Mortgage Lawsuit Tsunami: Assessing the Situation,” Institutional Investor Legal Forum, October 18, 2011, Washington DC

Panelist, “The Future of the Investor Servicer Model,” 5^th Annual Mortgage Servicing Conference, April 6, 2011, Dallas, TX

Panelist, “Litigation Update,” American Securitization Forum, February 8, 2011, Orlando, FL

“Ease Burden of Plaintiffs,” The National Law Journal, June 20, 2005

"The Liability of Lawyers for Fraud Under the Federal and State Securities Laws," 34 St. Mary's L.J. 915 (2003)