Mr. Guynn is head of Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Financial Institutions Group. His practice focuses on providing strategic bank regulatory and enforcement advice and advising on M&A and capital markets transactions when the target or issuer is a banking organization or other financial institution. He also advises on corporate governance and internal controls, cross-border collateral transactions, securities settlement systems and payment systems.

His clients include all three of the largest U.S. and many of the world’s leading European and Asian banking organizations. Recent publicly announced M&A transactions include advising Morgan Stanley on its proposed sale of a $5 billion minority interest to the China Investment Corporation (CIC); E*TRADE on its sale of a $2.5 billion minority interest to Citadel; ABN AMRO on its $101 billion acquisition by a consortium consisting of The Royal Bank of Scotland, Fortis and Santander; ABN AMRO on its $21 billion sale of LaSalle Bank Corporation to Bank of America; SLM Corporation (Sallie Mae) on its proposed $25 billion sale to an investors group led by J.C. Flowers; Sanpaolo IMI on its €65 billion merger with Banca Intesa; Mercantile Bancshares on its $6 billion sale to PNC Financial; Huntington Bancshares on its $3.6 billion acquisition of Sky Financial; Citigroup on its $3.1 billion stake in Guangdong Development Bank; ABN AMRO on the $1.5 billion acquisition by a group of investors of AXA Re; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on its sale of a $3.8 billion minority interest to Goldman Sachs, Allianz and American Express; and Santander in its $2.7 billion minority investment in Sovereign Bancorp. Recent capital markets transactions include ICBC in its $16.1 billion international IPO, which together with its $5.9 billion domestic offering, was the largest IPO in history; structuring various tax-deductible trust preferred securities that qualify for Tier 1 regulatory capital and Moody’s basket C treatment; and structuring various 3(a)(2)-exempt equity and credit derivatives programs. Recent bank regulatory advice has included advice on merchant banking, anti-money laundering, economic sanctions (OFAC), energy derivatives, controlling and non-controlling investments, 23A/23B, debanking, rebanking, FHC status, hedge funds, federal preemption, anti-tying, Utah industrial banks, corporate governance and internal controls.

Mr. Guynn joined Davis Polk in 1986 and became a partner in 1993. He practiced in the Paris office from 1988 to 1990 and the London office from 1994 to 1999.

He graduated, with highest honors, from Brigham Young University in 1981 and in 1984 received his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Law Review. Mr. Guynn was a law clerk for the Honorable William H. Rehnquist, U.S. Supreme Court, from 1985 to 1986, following a clerkship with the Honorable J. Clifford Wallace, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, from 1984 to 1985.

Mr. Guynn has been a speaker on numerous banking and securities law panels and is the author of several publications, including U.S. Law Considerations Applicable to Foreign Bank Acquisitions of U.S. Banking Institutions, in Regulation of Foreign Banks: United States and International vol. 1, ch. 3 (2^nd ed. 1995, 3^rd ed. 2000, Supp. 4^th ed. forthcoming 2007); Foreign Banks and the Financial Holding Company, Regulation of Foreign Banks: United States and International, vol. 1, ch. 10 (Supp. 4^th ed. forthcoming 2007); United States Disclosure Standards for Banks, in Asia Law Week (1998); and Modernizing Securities Ownership, Transfer and Pledging Laws: A Discussion Paper on the Need for International Harmonization (Capital Markets Forum, International Bar Association 1996).

He was legal adviser to the Working Group on Public Disclosure (an advisory group to the Federal Reserve that issued recommendations for improving public disclosure by financial institutions in 2001); a member of the drafting committee for the Hague Convention (PRIMA) on Private International Law (which established modernized choice of law rules for cross-border securities and collateral transactions), 2002; a legal adviser to the Group of 30 in connection with Global Clearing and Settlement: A Plan of Action (2003) (principal author of Recommendation 15 on reducing legal risk); and chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Modernizing Securities Ownership, Transfer and Pledging Laws of the Capital Markets Forum of the International Bar Association from 1994 to 2000. He is a member of the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association and the Federalist Society.

He has been listed in numerous guides to the world’s leading business lawyers since 1996, including Chambers Global—The World’s Leading Lawyers, Chambers USA—America’s Leading Business Lawyers, IFLR’s Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Banking Lawyers, Law Business Research’s International Who’s Who of Banking Lawyers, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in American Law. He has been a member of the French-American Foundation, Young Leaders Program since 1994.

He is currently a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the National Advisory Board for the Constitutional Sources Project (www.consource.org), a non-profit organization that is creating the first comprehensive online public library of original source materials for the U.S. Constitution.