Steven J. Eisen

Steven J. Eisen, shareholder in the Nashville office, concentrates his practice in corporate and securities transactions with an emphasis in banking and financial institution law. His experience includes mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, new corporate, LLC, and bank formation, equity and debt offerings, state and federal securities laws registration and exemptions, copyrights and trademarks, computer and technology, and general corporate law. He has been published in numerous banking, trade association, and business journals, and he frequently lectures on financial institution law, corporate and securities law, and director duties at seminars sponsored by the Tennessee Bankers Association, Tennessee Society of CPAs, the American, Tennessee, and Nashville Bar Associations, and other organizations. He is a member of the Firm's Mortgage Industry Service Team.

Mr. Eisen's honors, which are detailed more below, include being ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers in the top tier of lawyers in the areas of banking & finance and banking & finance: regulatory in Tennessee; being listed as a "Power Leader in Banking" by the Nashville Business Journal in 2011; being listed as one of the "Best Lawyers in Nashville" in the Nashville Post; being listed as one of the "Best Lawyers in Tennessee" by Business TN, each year of publication since 2004; being listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America®, Banking Law, each year since 1995; as among the top 100 attorneys in Tennessee by Mid-South Super Lawyers annually since 2006; and being listed in The Legal 500 United States, Volume I, Corporate and Finance in the area of mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Eisen is an Eagle Scout and a Life Loyal Sig of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

Recent Representative Transactions

• Annually advises with respect to private equity offerings for numerous banks, bank holding companies, and other businesses.
• Over 70 de novo bank, mortgage company, trust company, and finance company formations and over 100 bank holding company formations in Tennessee and surrounding states.
• Consistently listed by SNL Securities as one of the leading law firms in the United States representing a significant number of financial institution buyers or sellers in mergers, acquisitions, and significant asset sales. Also represents many non-bank companies in merger, acquisition, and expansion transactions.
• Secured over 75 federal trademark registrations with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
• Negotiates numerous cease and desist and consent orders, memorandums of understanding, board resolutions, notices of charges, and other formal and informal agreements and examination results between financial institution clients and state and federal regulatory authorities, including filing appeals with the agencies' Ombudsman's Offices.
• Represented the Tennessee Consumer Finance Association, the trade association for finance companies (industrial loan and thrift companies), in filing an amicus curie brief with the Tennessee Supreme Court in Auto Credit v. Wimmer, where the Court ruled favorably validating the traditional manner for notice of sale to a debtor for the sale of repossessed collateral.
• Represented the Tennessee Bankers Association in obtaining favorable decisions from the Tennessee Attorney General, and defending the decision in court, allowing banks in Tennessee to sell title insurance. Providing similar work for other state banking associations.
• Assists many bank clients in the development and revision of business plans, capital plans, operating policies and procedures, and regulatory compliance.
• Represented over 20 issuers of trust preferred securities raising over $200 million in bank holding company equity.
• Represented over 25 financial institutions nationwide in seeking government investments through the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) and the Small Business Lending fund (SBLF). 
• Assists various parties involved in FDIC receivership situations including representing loan participants where there is disagreement when the FDIC is acting as the servicing or a participating bank, purchasing assets from the FDIC, representing borrowers in settling obligations to the FDIC, and bidding on acquisitions of failed banks.
• Advising financial institution directors with respect to their fiduciary duties, especially with respect to their regulatory obligations and interactions.
• Advising financial institutions with respect to insurance bond claims for customer or employee malfeasance or fraud.
• Advising a number of clients with respect to employee contracts, including benefit plans, severance agreements, golden parachutes, and general employment situations.
• Advising financial institutions with respect to expansion alternatives, including branching, loan production offices, interstate banking, charter sales, and new products and services.
• Actively involved in drafting banking legislation in Tennessee on behalf of clients and as a member of the Tennessee Banker's Association's Government Relations Committee and the Lawyers Committee.
• Recognized as drafting the legislation for, and submitting, the first application by electronic mail to the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions.

Publications & Speaking Engagements

• "Q & A: Steve Eisen (about failed bank closure process)," Nashville City Paper (February 6, 2012)
• "Regulators vs. Community Banks: The Latest From the Battlefield," Horne Banker's Forum, Memphis, Tennessee (September 28, 2011)
• "Banking Vets Plan First Area Bank Since 2007," Nashville Business Journal (September 16, 2011)
• "New Local Mutual Fund Aims for $1B in Assets," Nashville Business Journal (March 25, 2011)
• "Nashville Banks Look to Tap $30B Small Business Lending Fund," Nashville Business Journal (March 25, 2011)
• "Bank Directors Beware," Alexander Thompson Thornton CPAs Annual Banking Conference, Jackson, Tennessee (August 26, 2010)
• "Feds Gone Wild," Louisiana Bankers Association, Bank Lawyer Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana (November 12-13, 2009)
• "Bank for Sale: Merger & Acquisition Due Diligence for Financial Institutions," nationwide audio seminar sponsored by A.S. Pratt & Sons (February 29, 2009)
• Regulatory issues for banks in Tennessee, including examination issues, TARP funding, other capital raising issues, and boards of director duties at the Tennessee Bankers Association Executive Management Conference, San Diego, California (January 24, 2009)
• "Due Diligence – War Stories," Tennessee Society of CPA's Financial Institutions Conference, Nashville, Tennessee (September 22, 2008)
• "What the 'C' in CAMEL is All About," Alexander Thompson Arnold PLLC Fall 2008 Bankers Workshop, Jackson, Tennessee (September 18, 2008)
• "Mergers and Acquisitions Issues," Alexander Thompson Arnold PLLC Fall 2007 Bankers Workshop (October 2007)
• Intellectual Property Desk Book, Co-author of "Chapter 1: IP Issues for Start-Up Companies," American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, Intellectual Property Committee (2007, Revised 2008)
• "Skyrocketing Bank Director Regulatory Expectations and Responsibilities," Community Banker, the monthly publication of America's Community Bankers (August 2007)
• Tennessee Bankers Association Community Bank Directors Conference, New Directors, A Defensive Seminar for New Directors on Avoiding Lawsuits and Potential Liability, Nashville, Tennessee (September 7, 2006)
• Co-author – "Trademark and Marketing Issues for Financial Institutions," Consumer Finance Law Quarterly Report (Spring 2006)
• "Bank Director Liability Issues," B.I.G. BOLI Conference, Nashville, Tennessee (October 26, 2005)
• "Eight Points You Need to Know About Raising Capital and Securities Law Compliance," East Tennessee Business Journal (October 20, 2005)
• "Current Strategic Alternatives for Banks," Clark BOLI and Strategies Seminar, sponsored by Clark Consulting, Jackson, Nashville, and Knoxville, Tennessee (September 13-15, 2005)
• "Current Regulatory Issues/Challenges," Tennessee Bankers Association Executive Management Conference, Otesaga Resort Hotel, Cooperstown, New York (August 19-21, 2005)
• "Value: Measuring, Maximizing, And Protecting, The Value of Your Institution," Tennessee Bankers Association Annual Meeting, Greenbrier, West Virginia (June 6, 2005)
• "Recent Developments in Banking Law – Trademark Law for Banks," American Bar Association, Spring Meeting of the Business Law Section, Nashville, Tennessee (March 31, 2005)
• Co-author – Starting De Novo Banks, Alex Information, LP (1999)
• "Banking Acquisition and Procedures by Holding Companies," The Banking Law Journal (November – December 1984)
• Co-author – "The Community Reinvestment Act: The Regulators Give It A New Emphasis," The Banking Law Journal (July – August 1990)
• "Know Copyright and Trademark Laws Before Ink Goes to Paper," Print South, the magazine of the Printers Association of the South (October 1993)
• "Trademark and Copyright Protection," The Tennessee Banker, the trade journal of the Tennessee Bankers Association (May 1994)
• "Surf's Up: A Banker's Guide to Riding the Internet Wave," American Banker (September 1995)
• "A Guide for Banker's Surfing the Net," The Tennessee Banker (June 1996)

Professional Honors & Activities

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America® since 1995
• Named the Best Lawyers' 2011 Nashville Banking Lawyer of the Year 
• Listed in Best Lawyers in Tennessee by Business Tennessee magazine since 2004
• Listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers since 2006; named among top 100 attorneys in Tennessee (2010 and 2011)  
• Listed as one of the 101 Top Middle Tennessee Lawyers by Nashville Post (2011)
• Listed – Nashville Post "In Charge" list - Banking (2010 – 2012)
• Listed in The Legal 500 United States, Volume I, Corporate and Finance since 2007
• Listed since 2008 in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers as a leading lawyer in the areas of banking & finance and banking & finance: regulatory in Tennessee
• Recipient – Nashville Bar Association award for "Journal Article of the Year" for "Feds Gone Wild" article (2009) 
• Listed – Nashville Business Journal "Best of the Bar" list (2006, 2011)
• Named a "Power Leader in Banking" by the Nashville Business Journal (2011)
• Associate Member – Tennessee Bankers Association (formerly chairman of the Lawyer's Committee and member of the Government Relations Committee and Insurance Task Force)
• Member – Tennessee (LLC Task Force Committee), American (Intellectual Property Section, Science and Technology Law Section and Business Section, Banking Law Committee) and Nashville Bar Associations (Corporate Counsel Committee and Corporate and Commercial Practices Committee)
• Finalist in the Concours International De Plaidoiries, La Defense Des Droits De L'Homme, Caen, France in March, 1991, presented paper on "International Treatment of Children with Disabilities"

Community Activities

• Board of Directors – Exchange Club Family Center (child abuse prevention)
• Board of Directors – Downtown Nashville Exchange Club, Former Speaker Chairman 
• Board of Directors – Nashville RBI, Inc. (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities)
• Board of Directors and Treasurer – Satellite Organization of the American Cancer Society
• Annual volunteer work with Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and Big Brothers of Nashville

Admissions

• United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1983
• United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, 1983
• Tennessee, 1983

Education

• Vanderbilt Law School, J.D., 1983
• Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management, M.B.A., 1983 (European Institute Scholar, concentration in accounting)
• Northwestern University, B.A. (economics), 1979, member of debate team and Sigma Chi fraternity

Interests

• Tennis
• Boating
• Baseball and other sports enthusiast and memorabilia collector
• Computer and audio/visual technology
• Financial investments and planning