Procter & Gamble v. Bankers Trust

We were counsel for Procter & Gamble in litigation in 1994-96 against Bankers Trust arising out of two substantial derivatives contracts entered into by P&G. The litigation raised numerous issues of first impression involving the application of contract, fraud, negligence and fiduciary duty, federal and state securities and commodities and RICO law to derivatives contracts, and led to Sixth Circuit and Supreme Court decisions on issues including the discoverability of materials relating to Federal Reserve Board examination of regulated banks and the power of District Courts to enjoin publication of materials filed under seal under protective orders. The case involved massive discovery of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and thousands of audiotapes and computer files, and required extensive computerization for discovery management. The matter settled shortly before trial, resulting in a $165 million recovery by P&G, the largest (in absolute or percentage terms) of any such publicly reported derivatives recovery.