Regulatory & Advisory
O’Melveny helps clients stay ahead of changing regulations and be prepared for shifting enforcement priorities.
We work with leading companies across industries around the globe to identify and manage risk, anticipate obstacles, seize opportunities—and, when necessary, respond to regulatory inquiries. Our team includes lawyers who have served in senior-most positions in government and regulatory agencies worldwide, and we bring that experience to bear when advising clients on how to navigate their responsibilities and regulatory scrutiny.
As our clients pursue opportunities around the world, we help them comply with ever-changing regulatory and legislative requirements and avoid and defend lawsuits and investigations. Our lawyers advise clients on how coming regulatory changes potentially affect both long-range strategy and day-to-day operations, and we help design consistent, effective, global business and legal strategies.
We advise clients across industries and continents, developing and enhancing compliance programs and ensuring that our clients have the right policies and procedures in place. We monitor legislative and regulatory developments that affect our clients, and we help clients understand and prepare for how these changes might affect their structure, governance, and products and services. And we help clients assess their business partners and investments, conducting due diligence for mergers, acquisitions, financings, and other transactions.
Whether in internal agency proceedings or in court, clients trust O’Melveny to achieve the best outcomes—through negotiation and settlement or aggressive litigation.
Client Successes
Successfully guided a major bank through a federal class action and parallel inquiry by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau into alleged confusion over credit card auto-pay features. After winning dismissal of the plaintiff’s initial complaint, we helped negotiate a class-wide settlement. We also managed thousands of CFPB information requests while helping the bank devise a strategy to limit any civil money penalty.
Defended for decades in high-stakes litigation across the country and before the US Supreme Court, and provided ongoing regulatory and transactional advice in support of the company’s strategic objectives, including its efforts to slow the effects of climate change.
Advising the global leader in engineered materials and optoelectronic components in implementing a unique hold-separate remedy imposed by China’s SAMR following its acquisition of Finisar Corporation. More recently, we advised Coherent Corp. on its acquisition of Coherent, Inc., a global provider of lasers and laser-based technology for scientific, commercial, and industrial customers; we also advise on the implementation of remedies imposed by SAMR following this further transaction.
Secured CFIUS clearance for Korean petrochemical company DL Chemical Co. to acquire Kraton Corp. for US$2.5 billion—a rare acquisition of a US-listed company by a Korean buyer.
Represented a former CEO of Fortune 500 company in an accounting-related SEC investigation and in private securities litigation. Although the SEC charged the company and a former officer with corporate reporting violations and fraud, the SEC did not charge our client with those violations.
Advised a committee of First Republic Bank’s independent board members following the high-profile failures of SVB and Signature Bank, including through First Republic’s acquisition by JPMorgan Chase.
Representing mobile phone maker in an ongoing SEC investigation and multi-forum securities litigation over potential violations of securities law, including alleged misstatements in its IPO registration.
Represented Pioneer in its years-long effort to end the US ban on oil exports, a restriction that paradoxically increased the nation’s reliance on imported oil. O’Melveny developed the policy rationales and a strategic plan for pursuing regulatory and legislative relief, ultimately leading to the ban’s repeal in 2015.
Defending the retail giant in a California lawsuit filed by various state officials alleging that Walmart violated the state’s Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, and Consumer Records Act.