Q&A With Burr & Forman's Thomas Potter

Law360, New York (May 15, 2013, 7:02 PM ET) -- Thomas K. Potter III is managing partner of Burr & Forman LLP's Nashville, Tenn., office. He has more than 25 years experience representing business interests in securities, corporate and intellectual property disputes. He represents broker-dealers and investment bankers in disputes from multidistrict, mutual-fund class actions to state-court jury trials on derivatives contracts, government enforcement actions, and constitutional challenges to municipal securities rules to customer arbitrations. In addition to disputed matters, he advises broker-dealers, municipal and investment advisers on regulatory and compliance matters. He assists companies with internal investigations, regulatory and compliance matters. Potter sits as an arbitrator and panel chairman for the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority.

Q: What is the most challenging case you have worked on and what made it challenging?

A: My most challenging case began with a scared phone call from the president of a regional broker-dealer who was watching New York Attorney-General Spitzer announce a plea-bargain with a firm client at the same time The Wall Street Journal called. A rogue broker in the firm's New York City office had embroiled it in the center of parallel regulatory investigations (later enforcement actions) by the New York Attorney General, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority - with the followup multidistrict litigation class actions, too - over mutual-fund market-timing and late trading. The breadth, depth and speed of the scandal threatened to overwhelm the client, but we kept the representation tightly focused to achieve a good result without killing the client to get there.