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Daniel P. Cunningham (In Memoriam)

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Cunningham, Daniel P. (In Memoriam)
Cunningham, Daniel P. (In Memoriam)
Daniel P. Cunningham (In Memoriam)
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Daniel Cunningham joined the firm as a litigator in July 2009 with more than 30 years of experience in New York and London advising on risk assessment issues of various types.  In addition to substantial transactional experience, he has significant experience working on litigation and arbitration matters.  He also has advised Boards of Directors of major corporations on issues that combined the pursuit of strategic business goals with litigation either as a tool to reach those goals or a threat to their attainment.  He is on the Executive Committee of the PRIME Finance Foundation based in The Hague, which is a new organization that provides education on derivatives for judges around the world and arbitration services for cross-border disputes involving complex financial products.

Dan has represented major clients as lead lawyer in virtually every kind of financing and acquisition transaction and, as a result, has an understanding of such transactions that few litigators have.  He has participated in all types of capital markets transactions, including equity and debt offerings for U.S. and non-U.S. issuers, and in particular has extensive experience representing financial institutions.  He was lead counsel on a number of transformational M&A transactions that required the solution of novel issues under the laws of the US and jurisdictions in Europe.  Chambers named him US capital markets lawyer of the year in 2006.

Dan is one of the most knowledgeable lawyers in the world regarding derivatives and other types of structured finance instruments.  He was U.S. counsel to ISDA from its inception until 2009.  He is widely recognized as a principal architect of the ISDA Master Agreements and related ISDA credit derivatives and other definitions.  Moreover, he advised ISDA for many years on the preparation of US insolvency legislation creating and improving safe harbors for swaps and other capital markets products under various US insolvency regimes.

Practice Areas

Notable Representations

  • Representing the Lehman Creditors’ Committee in litigation against JP Morgan and Citibank involving substantial claims arising out of calculations of close-out amounts under ISDA Master Agreements.
  • Achieved a settlement in excess of $600 million for institutional investors in a troubled Asian real estate fund.  This result was achieved without filing a complaint.
  • Represented MBIA in pursuing successor liability claims against Bank of America.  MBIA had written monoline insurance policies on Countrywide securitization transactions.  One Quinn Emanuel team pursued the primary liability case against Countrywide while Dan led the successor liability case against Bank of America.  The litigation settled in early 2013 on favorable terms for MBIA.
  • Represented AIG and its AIF-FP subsidiary in a $1.5 billion ISDA Master Agreement termination dispute with Brookfield Asset Management, which settled in 2013 with a substantial amount payable to AIG.
  • Represented a major Mexican corporation in obtaining a permanent injunction against JPMorgan in litigation involving compliance with provisions governing assignments and participations under a loan agreement.
  • Obtained recoveries in excess of $400 million for a major US bank in disputes with five financial institutions from South Korea arising out of complex leveraged currency derivatives.
  • Obtained excellent commercial and financial results for a major European airline as a result of a purchase of a 20% interest in a major US airline that led to governance disputes, litigation in New York and Delaware and ultimately a sale of the equity back to the issuer and the creation of a successful, long-term trans-Atlantic alliance that benefits from antitrust immunity.

 

 

Education

  • Harvard Law School
    (J.D., magna cum laude, 1975)
    • Harvard Law Review:
      • Developments Editor, 1974-1975
      • Editor, 1973-1974
  • Princeton University
    (A.B., cum laude, 1971)

Admissions

  • The State Bar of New York
  • The State Bar of California

Prior Associations

  •  Allen & Overy LLP, New York:
    • Senior Partner, Global US Practice, 2001-2009
  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York:
    • Hiring Partner, Partner in Charge of London Office, Managing Partner, 1983-2001
    • Associate, 1978-1983
  • Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, San Francisco:
    • Associate, 1976-1978
  • Law Clerk to the Hon. James R. Browning:
    • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, 1975-1976

Publications and Lectures

  • Dan Cunningham has lectured on many occasions on the ISDA Master Agreements and various derivatives risk management topics at conferences organized by ISDA or the PLI.  For 10 years he was co-chair of PLI's conference on "Swaps and Other Derivatives".  He also was a speaker on securities law topics twice at PLI's Annual Institute on Securities Regulation.  In addition, he has spoken on derivatives topics at the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland at the IOSCO Annual Meeting in Taiwan and at IBA meetings in various parts of the world.
  • He recently gave seminars on the financial building blocks of derivatives and derivatives legal issues for the New York Appellate Division Justices, the Supreme Court of Singapore and the Supreme Court and Chancery Court of Delaware.
  • Dan Cunningham has written numerous articles and contributed chapters to various books on topics including derivatives documentation, cross-border risk management for financial institutions, close-out netting legislation and developments in US litigation.

Professional Activities

  • Charter Trustee of Phillips Academy, 2000-Present
  • Chairman of the Board of Job Path Inc. (not-for-profit NY organization that fosters employment training and independent living for the developmentally disabled), 1999-Present