McGuireWoods LLP

Firm Details:

Chairman: Jonathan P. Harmon

Managing Partner: J. Tracy Walker IV

Number of lawyers: 1100

Firm Overview:

McGuireWoods boasts a nationally recognised fintech practice with lawyers in offices across the country, including in the most active fintech hubs. Clients benefit from its lawyers’ keen understanding of emerging technologies and deep experience serving the financial sector. The firm is well equipped to handle shifting legal, commercial and technical challenges. The firm’s decades of experience representing financial institutions, including each of the top 10 US banks ranked by assets, provide the firm with the industry insight and broad capabilities to help companies thrive.

McGuireWoods lawyers advise fintech clients and financial institutions in a variety of areas, including:

• Fintech transactions
• Financing
• Products counseling
• Consumer compliance and litigation
• Government investigations and regulation
• Data privacy and security/information governance
• Payments processing
• Money services businesses

The firm’s fintech practice covers industries a broad range of industries, including consumer lending, marketplace lenders, business lending, alternative financing companies, real property financing, earned wage access, payment processors, money transmitters and other money services businesses, data aggregators, crypto/blockchain technologies, and cannabis, hemp and CBD.

Members of the fintech team contribute to industry publications and participate in top industry events in the evolving technologies field. To update clients and contacts on the regulatory, enforcement and litigation issues affecting fintech companies and their partners, McGuireWoods also publishes the “Consumer FinSights” blog.

Because its fintech practice operates as an extension of McGuireWoods’ financial institutions industry team, the firm leverages the resources and experience of more than 350 lawyers across offices and practices to ensure full legal coverage.

Main Areas of Practice:

Fintech Transactions

McGuireWoods has significant experience structuring and negotiating complicated fintech transactions, including vendor-facing and customer-facing contractual relationships for fintech companies, fintech service providers and financial services clients. Firm lawyers focus on two objectives: protecting clients’ vital assets and interests, and advancing their strategic business goals.

Financing

The firm's lawyers counsel clients in complex, high-value financings and are equally prepared to assist with middle-market, mission-critical transactions. Its lawyers have also advised fintech companies and financial institutions on providing loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. With more than 90 finance lawyers in offices across the United States and in London, McGuireWoods has one of the largest finance practices in the United States and is recognised as one of the nation’s pre-eminent law firms for syndicated finance and general corporate lending transactions.

Products Counseling

McGuireWoods assists clients during the new product development process, identifying federal and state consumer financial services laws, regulations and licensing requirements; assessing legal and business risks and related issues; and most importantly, developing creative solutions to support the launch of its clients’ new products and services.

Consumer Compliance and Litigation

Drawing on decades of experience representing financial institutions, McGuireWoods advises fintech companies and financial institutions on consumer compliance and handles consumer litigation and class actions involving state UDAP and consumer protection statutes, as well as federal claims under the TCPA, TILA, FDCPA, ECOA and FCRA.

Government Investigations and Regulation

McGuireWoods counsels on regulatory compliance and advises clients responding to inquiries from the DOJ, CFPB, OCC, FinCEN, SEC, FINRA, Congress and state attorneys general related to licensing consumer protection. The firm also offers guidance on complying with the Bank Secrecy Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, the CARES Act and the Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations, among others.

Data Privacy and Security/Information Governance

McGuireWoods provides global governance programs that strategically address information collection, use, transfer, storage and disposition, with the goal of leveraging business intelligence and reducing risk. The firm’s lawyers advise financial services companies regarding Gramm-Leach-Bliley, PCI/DSS, FCRA, Red Flags Rule, and SEC privacy and security compliance, as well as vendor management and effective data breach response.

Key Contacts

• Rakesh Gopalan
• Molly White