Compliance Blog

Last week at the American Bar Association Spring Business Law Section Spring Meeting, quite a few credit union attorneys noted a developing issue.  They indicated that examiners are asking for legal opinion letters that the credit union obtained from outside counsel in certain situations.

There are a few things to note about this:

• Examiners have the right to review such documents.
• Examiners may not always understand why legal opinion letters look the way they do.  According to attendees, some examiners had problems with a number of things seen in legal opinion letters.  For example, the legal opinion letters they saw were not forward-looking.  The attorney stated an opinion as of a certain date and made no promises to update the letter moving forward.  In addition, the attorney who wrote the legal opinion letter relied on facts supplied by the credit union that requested the opinion letter. 

If examiners have questions about why outside counsel legal opinion letters look the way they do, this webpage may help.  It is the Legal Opinion Resource Center, which is maintained by the Legal Opinions Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law and the Tribar Opinions Committee.  Specifically, the document Legal Opinions Principles is a very good read.  It outlines numerous issues that guide outside counsel as they draft legal opinion letters.

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The Compliance Guy is mired in a sports funk.  The Flyers are beating up on the Capitals.  The Nats have lost 10 of 11.  Penn State's star linebacker just suffered an injury that will likely keep him off the grid-iron next season. Luckily, NAFCU opens up its softball season tonight.  We take on the Panthers, who I assume have no allegiance to the NFL-franchise.   Wish us luck.  I need a win.