PRACTICE EXPERIENCE | FINANCIAL

Mark Zimmett has many years' experience in litigating international and domestic banking, bank regulatory and other financial cases. His firm has represented twenty foreign and domestic banks; litigating and advising them in disputes over structured securities transactions and other financial products, in workouts, on bank secrecy and anti-money laundering issues and on compliance with the regulations of the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Recent cases include advising a bank client on its substantial exposure to CDOs (collateral debt obligations) and defending another foreign bank in an action involving a cross- currency interest swap. The court granted Zimmett’s motion to dismiss the case in its entirety, with prejudice against plaintiffs refiling the case again.

Zimmett began his training in a group at Shearman & Sterling that handled most of the routine litigation for Citibank and other bank clients. It was a small group and he tried many cases. Over time, the cases became more complex and highly profiled, including the following:

Somoza: Following the revolution in Nicaragua, Zimmett brought a number of actions to enforce the repayment of various financial obligations against General Somoza, his sister (the wife of the then Dean of the Diplomatic Corp in Washington) and other family members.

Iran Litigation: Zimmett was the principal associate representing Citibank in the cases arising out of the Iranian revolution. He litigated the cases in the United States (arguing the only Iranian case Citibank had in the Second Circuit), coordinated litigation to attach assets in the U.K., France and Germany and represented the bank before the Iran - U.S. Claims Tribunal at the Hague.

L'Affaire Pinkas/Socsil: Zimmett was the lead litigator for Citibank in a number of cases arising out of what was at the time one of the largest frauds in Swiss banking history, involving litigation and bankruptcy proceedings in New York, Lausanne and Zurich.

Banco Ambrosiano: Zimmett represented a major bank creditor in the failure of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's then-largest commercial bank. He advised his client as a member of the creditors' steering committee for Banco Ambrosiano Overseas Ltd., the Bahamian subsidiary that still held significant assets. He also represented his client in litigation in New York and managed related proceedings in Switzerland, the Bahamas and elsewhere. By successfully beating back the claims of creditors of other Ambrosiano affiliates, Zimmett's client and other creditors of the Bahamian subsidiary were substantially repaid from that subsidiary's assets.

Shipping Workouts: Zimmett led a team of litigators working on behalf of Citibank in New York, London, Lisbon, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong and elsewhere to recover loans to a number of shipping companies, including Sanko in Japan, Tung and Wah Kwong in Hong Kong and U.S. Lines in the United States. The bank bought at auction one of the ships Zimmett's team arrested and renamed it after Zimmett's daughter, The Queen Nora.

Hunt Brothers/Placid Oil/Penrod: Zimmett was Citibank's lead litigator in the litigation between the Hunts and twenty-three banks over the repayment of approximately $1.5 billion in the federal courts and bankruptcy court.

Bilzerian/Singer: Zimmett brought an action to enforce Citibank's right to $10 million cash collateral on demand following Paul Bilzerian's announced take-over of The Singer Company. Two weeks later, the court ordered an unusual mandatory preliminary injunction directing Singer to pay $10 million cash collateral.

Letters of Credit: "Letter of credit injunction cases offered wonderful training for a litigator. There was virtually no discovery (depositions and document production), so I was able to get into court quickly for a hearing, sometimes in a matter of hours." Building on this experience, Zimmett became an acknowledged expert, speaking to the ABA and other bar groups, writing a Practice Guide on letters of credit published by Matthew Bender and participating in the deliberations of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law as they considered amendments to revise the Uniform Commercial Code on letters of credit.