This may be the era of large-scale bank mergers, but the trend is also spawning a crop of smaller banks and new financial institutions in the region.
Enter Paul M. Glickman, formerly of the U.S. Department of Justice, and state Sen. Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr., D-Pittsfield.
The two have teamed up to establish a banking and securities financial law practice at the Boston law firm Berman and Dowell, offering regional and smaller banks services ranging from advice on e-commerce and regulatory law to litigation.
We want to take advantage of the experience I have … and take advantage of the resources and expertise of Mr. Nuciforo, Glickman said in an interview at Berman and Dowell.
With new complications in the banking industry emerging from the realm of e-commerce, Glickman sees a unique opportunity to fill that niche, as well as to provide traditional law services.
What’s interesting, and what I’ve been reading a lot about, is digital signature law, rights to financial privacy, e-commerce. There are a lot of banks considering opening Internet branches. But how do you transmit business without a written signature? Glickman said. These are new areas of the law, and the firm is already moving into those areas.
With their combined experience, Nuciforo and Glickman know how to cut through the red tape of banking litigation, and therefore can offer clients professional, efficient, cost-effective service, said Glickman.
As a small firm, we can quickly adapt to a client’s needs, and do things much more efficiently, he said.
What’s unique about this practice is his own background and that of Nuciforo, Glickman added.
Nuciforo has served as an attorney of counsel at Berman and Dowell for the past year and will continue to do so, he said, acting mainly as a resource for the new banking group. Nuciforo is also chairman of the Senate Banks and Banking Committee.
A state senator hailing from the Berkshires, Nuciforo will continue to live in Pittsfield and work as a general practitioner and litigator in his hometown. He expects no change in his schedule with this new effort, he said.
Glickman left the New England Bank Fraud Task Force section of the Justice Department this past December, and joined Berman and Dowell in the beginning of this month to head the new banking practice.
Thinking Small
For the past several months, Glickman and members of the firm discussed the notion of a practice devoted specifically to issues facing new, smaller institutions. Glickman and Nuciforo became acquainted through those discussions.
We developed a personal relationship. We at the firm recognize his quality as a litigator and his legal knowledge, Glickman said.
Nuciforo, in turn, referred to the uncommon qualifications of Glickman, which include his work with the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and his experience in white-collar civil and criminal prosecution, bank fraud prosecution, regulatory law and compliance issues. At the Justice Department, Glickman also served on the Professional Responsibility Advisory Board, giving advice on ethical issues to government attorneys.
A lot of this [banking] work is done by the largest firms in Boston. Paul brings a very specific, unique skill set to a much smaller environment, Nuciforo said.
They’re hoping the firm’s smaller environment will prove attractive to smaller clients, Glickman said. Berman and Dowell, located downtown on Franklin Street, is a practice of less than a dozen attorneys, who will all work together in the firm’s new banking branch.
I haven’t noticed another practice like this, targeted to small-to-medium institutions, Glickman said of the firm’s new endeavor. We can offer these small-to-medium-sized clients highly personal representation.
The banking group will also act as a consultant to small and start-up financial institutions, offering advice on everything from adapting old banking methods and forms to the Internet to identifying potential legal problems.
In my experience working in the white-collar criminal area, not enough is done to prevent problems before they occur, Glickman said. We want to be able to deal with any problems these institutions may have before they develop into litigation.
If it’s too late for preventative measures, the banking group will conduct a forensic to review what led to the problem and prevent it from happening again, said Glickman.
Rodney S. Dowell of Berman and Dowell acknowledged that the banking group is an entrepreneurial venture for the law firm. However, both he and Glickman pointed out that the firm is already busy with insurance cases and that a banking branch will be a natural extension of that practice.
In the entrepreneurial spirit, the entire practice will be moving to 220 Commercial Street, to a new office with up-to-date technical capabilities, Glickman said. The firm expects to complete the move by mid-February.
Though the new banking practice is just starting, the response from other lawyers and potential clients has been enthusiastic, according to Glickman.
With the recent mergers in Massachusetts, there are very large institutions, but there are also a lot of small, new institutions, where there’s room for good quality representation, Glickman said.
The laws and the statutes are changing very rapidly with the Internet and digital signature law. You’ve got to have the background to do that, and we have that.
