Klehr Harrison Lawyers Awarded $8.17 Million In NASD Clearing Dispute
Klehr Harrison Lawyers Awarded $8.17 Million In NASD Clearing Dispute
Department Chair Michael K. Coran and securities attorney Michael A. Iaconelli, partners with the law firm of Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg LLP, obtained an award of $8,173,312.00 on behalf of their client, Fiserv Securities, Inc., a subsidiary of Fiserv, Inc., in an NASD arbitration against WM Financial Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Washington Mutual Bank.
The dispute centered around WM’s decision to challenge Fiserv’s standard Conversion Charges and IRA Termination Fees pursuant to the parties’ clearing agreement with one another. The arbitration, which was tried before a seasoned panel of three industry experts at the NASD’s offices in New York, required a total of 18 hearing and pre-hearing sessions to complete, and is believed to have resulted in the largest private award ever issued by a panel in the NASD’s Northeast Regional office.
Messrs. Coran and Iaconelli were assisted at trial by industry expert Howard Landers, a principal of 1st BridgeHouse Consulting in Coral Gables, Florida and Raymond Dovell, a senior shareholder with the Philadelphia based public accounting firm of Nihill & Riedley.