Cleveland Versus Wall Street: The Movie

Swiss film director Jean-Stéphane Bron's film (spoiler alert), Cleveland Versus Wall Street, presents the mock version of the trial that was never allowed to happen in the case of City of Cleveland v. Ameriquest (and 20 other banks), wherein Cleveland alleged that the banks' financing of sub-prime mortgages constituted a public nuisance leading to the foreclosure crisis in Cleveland.  The lawyers are Joshua R. Cohen, a partner at Cleveland’s Cohen Rosenthal & Kramer who was the plaintiffs lawyer in the real case, and Keith R. Fisher, a financial regulatory lawyer who is of counsel at Ballard Spahr in Washington, D.C., and orignally served as an adviser to the filmmakers on the details of banking law.  The mock trial was argued before a retired local judge and a jury of area residents, and the witnesses were a combination of Cleveland residents and financial experts.

SJP