William J. Sweet, Jr. is head of Skadden’s Financial Institutions Regulation and Enforcement Group and concentrates in financial institution merger and acquisition, regulatory, and enforcement matters. Before joining the firm, he was a staff attorney with the Federal Reserve Board, where he handled bank holding company regulatory, litigation and enforcement matters.

Mr. Sweet represents U.S., Asian, European and Latin American banking, securities and other financial institutions and their boards of directors on the strategic, policy and regulatory aspects of mergers and acquisitions, negotiated investments, joint ventures, restructuring transactions, bankruptcies and receiverships. He also advises private equity firms and others seeking to invest in regulated financial institutions.
In addition, Mr. Sweet regularly advises financial institutions on compliance and enforcement issues with respect to a broad range of governance, risk management, money laundering compliance, Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions, fair lending, consumer, CRA and other matters, including representation before federal and state regulatory and enforcement agencies.

He represents financial institutions before the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury and other financial regulatory agencies on a wide range of rulings, interpretations and approvals.

Mr. Sweet was recognized as one of the “Most Influential Lawyers” in finance and capital markets by The National Law Journal in 2011. He has been named as a “star individual” in the Financial Services Regulation — Banking Compliance category and ranked in the top tier in the Financial Services Regulation — Financial Institutions M&A area by Chambers USA. Mr. Sweet also has been ranked as a “star individual” for Banking & Finance: Mainly Regulatory in Chambers Global. According to Chambers USA, “he is considered to be one of the world’s leading banking lawyers and has been instrumental in advising a number of the firm’s leading financial services clients in relation to Dodd-Frank, regulatory compliance and transactions.”

He also has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Banking Lawyers, IFLR1000, The Legal 500 U.S. and The International Who’s Who of Banking Lawyers. Mr. Sweet was named Best Lawyers’ 2015 “Washington, D.C. Banking and Finance Lawyer of the Year” and he was included in Washingtonian Magazine’s 2013 “Best Lawyers” list. He writes on banking issues and appears frequently at seminars on financial institution mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues and enforcement matters.