ABOUT
Arthur S. Long is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he is a Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice Group and a member of the Securities Regulation Practice Group. Mr. Long focuses his practice on financial institutions regulation, advising on the regulatory aspects of M&A transactions; bank regulatory compliance issues; Dodd-Frank issues, including the regulation of systemically significant financial institutions (SIFIs) and related heightened capital and liquidity requirements; resolution planning; and Volcker Rule issues with respect to bank proprietary trading and private equity and hedge fund operations.
In addition, Mr. Long has significant experience with bank securities offerings and issues particular to foreign banks operating or seeking to operate in the United States. He also counsels fintech companies on regulatory issues relating to their businesses, and advises on regulatory matters relating to virtual currencies and blockchain technology, as such technology relates to payment and clearance and settlement systems.
Mr. Long is ranked as a leading lawyer in Banking and Financial Services Regulation by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and IFLR1000. Chambers describes Mr. Long as “an outside-the-box thinker” and “a relentless worker” who is “careful and creative with difficult issues in both financial services law and corporate law.”
Among Mr. Long’s publications are The Financial Services Regulation Deskbook, the Practising Law Institute treatise on the Dodd-Frank Act, and “The New Autarky? How U.S. and UK Domestic and Foreign Banking Proposals Threaten Global Growth,” a Policy Analysis of The Cato Institute.
At Gibson Dunn, in addition to counseling both non-U.S. and U.S. financial institutions on financial regulatory compliance issues, Mr. Long has advised on such publicly disclosed transactions as:
- GE Capital’s sale of its retail bank deposit program to Goldman Sachs, the first expansionary transaction by a global systemically important bank (G-SIB) since the Financial Crisis;
- Grupo Financiero Ficohsa’s purchase of Citigroup’s banking and credit card operations in Honduras and Nicaragua; and
- Green Dot Corporation’s acquisition of the Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, a provider of tax-related financial products.
Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Long practiced with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP for 16 years. During the Financial Crisis, he provided advice in connection with:
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s emergency loan to American International Group, Inc.;
- Her Majesty’s Treasury’s plan to provide support to the U.K. banking system, including obtaining relief from the U.S. Bank Holding Company Act for the U.K.-government controlled company that was the majority shareholder of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc and Lloyds Banking Group plc;
- Morgan Stanley’s becoming a bank holding company and conforming its global operations to the Bank Holding Company Act; and
- Citigroup’s proposed rescue of Wachovia Corporation and FDIC assistance.
Mr. Long advised Banco Santander, S.A. in connection with its acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., which resulted in protested applications to the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the New York State Banking Department. He also advised one of the first-round filing international banks on its resolution plan required by Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Mr. Long served as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1997 to 1998, and to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit from 1993 to 1994. In 1993, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as the Supreme Court Editor for the Harvard Law Review. He received his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1989.
