Old Knights and New Champions: Kaye, Scholer and the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Pursuit of the Dollar

Abstract

These narratives tend to be clear-cut, with the heroes and villains drawn in stark relief. The lawyers either acted properly or clearly violated ethical norms and statutory commands. The OTS either did what it had to do or abused its mandate. My story is fuzzier and concerns the interaction between lawyers and regulators. My purpose is first to sketch, by relying on the exchanges between OTS and Kaye, Scholer, some of the myriad statutory, regulatory, and ethical prescriptions, rules, and precepts that attempt to define the area inhabited by OTS regulators and by those lawyers representing thrift institutions. Thereafter, I make some observations about the incentives of regulators and lawyers under the current legal regime.