Skip to main content

Dodd-Frank Inc.: Debevoise Charges Bank $100K for 17-Page Letter

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on September 13, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

New regulations mean more work for lawyers. Reform on Wall Street through the Dodd-Frank Act has created a whole lot of work for attorneys in a move The New York Times has dubbed "Dodd-Frank Inc."

Is your firm capitalizing on the new regulations?

Debevoise & Plimpton is. The BigLaw firm has pumped out a 17-page letter about the new regulations at a hefty cost of $100,000.

And, don't expect the paperwork to end there.

After all, it's a cyclical part of law firm business. New regulations means confused businesses, and confused businesses means more work for attorneys.

It's up to the attorneys to take on the glorious job of figuring out what the heck Congress meant.

And, it's a tradition that has gone on for a long time. When the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act passed in the 1970s, lawyers received tons of new business from companies who were trying to make sense of the new law, according to The New York Times.

When Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, lawyers and accountants scrambled to help businesses figure out what to do with the new compliance regulations.

Debevoise has been joined by many other BigLaw firms who are all tackling the new Dodd-Frank regulations with great vigor. One associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell thought up a genius idea to make a database about the new requirements an interactive website.

He created a prototype of the website over one weekend, The New York Times reports.

Clearly, this Davis Polk associate was a gunner in law school.

What does this so-called "Dodd-Frank Inc." mean for your law firm? Well, if you're focused on financial services, it likely means that you and your fellow associates will be spending a fair amount of time reading and interpreting regulations on behalf of your clients. So, you might be kissing your free weekends goodbye.

Related Resources:

Copied to clipboard