Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Davis Polk advises on corporate transactions, financing and disputes, with financial institutions forming a particularly visible part of its practice. Its work for banks and other financial businesses connects transactional questions with the regulatory requirements that shape how those businesses raise capital and combine with one another.

In capital markets, the firm represents financial-sector issuers and underwriters on debt, equity, preferred stock and other securities. Its published practice materials identify regulatory capital, liquidity and related requirements as part of that work. Capital-markets and tax lawyers work with financial-institutions specialists on these transactions, illustrating the interaction between commercial structure and regulation.

Its financial-institutions M&A practice similarly combines knowledge of business combinations with banking and financial regulation, drawing on the firm's M&A and restructuring lawyers. Davis Polk also identifies pro bono service and community involvement as continuing institutional commitments. The firm's financial-services work offers a concrete example of how several legal disciplines contribute to the same business decision.