Bank Boards of Directors Key Risks and Responsibilities in 2021: Actions Counsel Should Take Now
Climate Change, Cybersecurity, Access to Banking and Credit
Recording of a 90-minute premium CLE video webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will offer guidance to bank counsel on three critical areas of risk that will impact U.S. banks in 2021--climate change, cybersecurity, and social justice--and steps the bank boards they advise should take to address the evolving regulatory framework around these issues.
Outline
- Banking risks for bank boards in 2021: legal and regulatory
- Climate change: risk management, disclosure
- Cybersecurity: emerging risks and issues in focus for regulators
- Consumer protection, equal access to banking services, anti-discrimination initiatives
Benefits
The panel will review these and other critical questions:
- How should banks go about assessing financial risks associated with climate change?
- Has the move to online banking increased the vulnerability of banks to cyber attacks? How can the risks be mitigated?
- What kinds of cybersecurity protocols should a board put in place for third-party service providers?
- What steps should companies be taking to protect themselves, and what disclosure controls should be in place to respond to a cyber incident?
- What are the potential legal and regulatory consequences of discriminatory banking practices?
Faculty

Nicole Friedlander
Partner
Sullivan & Cromwell
Ms. Friedlander is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Criminal Defense and Investigations Group and co-head... | Read More
Ms. Friedlander is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Criminal Defense and Investigations Group and co-head of its Cybersecurity Practice. She represents clients in complex internal investigations, regulatory enforcement proceedings and criminal matters involving every aspect of white-collar crime, including fraud, FCPA, insider trading, theft of trade secrets, money laundering and tax matters. Ms. Friedlander also advises major corporations and Boards of Directors in cybersecurity planning and incident response. She currently serves as co-chair of the New York Chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association and as a member of the New York City Bar Association’s White Collar Crime Committee. Ms. Friedlander has been ranked by Chambers USA 2021 for White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, where sources praised her “impress[ive] facility and judgment,” her ability to “quietly command[] the room with her skilled preparation,” and her standout trial skills (“She is so good in court.”).
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Marc Treviño
Partner
Sullivan & Cromwell
Mr. Treviño is the co-head of the firm’s corporate governance practice, the managing partner of its... | Read More
Mr. Treviño is the co-head of the firm’s corporate governance practice, the managing partner of its executive compensation group, and a founding member of its financial institutions group. He is a recognized leader in structuring and counseling senior executives and boards in significant matters involving reputation, overlapping regulatory regimes, fiduciary conflicts and multiple jurisdictions, with a particular emphasis on matters involving financial institutions. Mr. Treviño teaches Corporate Crisis Management at the Yale Law School and is a co-author of The Public Company Deskbook, which has been hailed as “the bible for securities lawyers” by Fortune. For over twenty years Mr. Treviño has represented prominent institutions and individuals in their most public and challenging transactions. He also lectures and writes extensively, and is often quoted with respect to corporate governance and compensation matters, including for the American Bar Association, Bank Directors Magazine, The Corporate Counsel, The Corporate Governance Advisor, Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Treviño is also on the Advisory Board for the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance.
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Allison D. Wood
Partner
McGuireWoods
Ms. Wood is nationally recognized as a leader in the field of environmental law, particularly in the area of climate... | Read More
Ms. Wood is nationally recognized as a leader in the field of environmental law, particularly in the area of climate change where she has guided clients through complex and politically charged precedent-setting cases before the US Supreme Court and several courts of appeals. For more than a decade, members of the C-suite and boards of directors for many companies and nonprofits have turned to Ms. Wood for advice on climate change issues. She has represented clients before the Supreme Court in all three landmark cases involving climate change: Massachusetts v. EPA, American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut, and Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA. With the client’s business objectives in mind, Ms. Wood assists with compliance with environmental statutes and regulations. She provides guidance and education to clients on compliance issues and on existing and forthcoming laws, prepares comments on proposed regulations, challenges unlawful regulations in court, and defends favorable regulations from attacks by others. She has also successfully defended companies from tort suits alleging that greenhouse gas emissions from the companies’ normal business operations contribute to the “nuisance” of global climate change. Ms. Wood has testified multiple times before Congress on the legal issues surrounding climate change.
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