Womble Bond Dickinson has hired a 36-strong consumer financial services team from McGlinchey Stafford in the US, expanding the firm’s coverage into Albany and Cleveland.
The incoming team includes 19 attorneys and a 17-member licensing support team that provides regulatory compliance assistance. The group is led by Mark Edelman alongside 10 other partners: Jeffrey Barringer, Jason Bichsel, Brian Fink, Amy Greenwood-Field, Ben Gross, Aaron Kouhoupt, Kelly Lipinski, Jim Milano, Robert Savoie and David Tallman.
The group’s practice serves banks, non-bank financial institutions, fintechs and other consumer-focused financial services providers, advising on regulation, compliance, licensing, supervisory and enforcement matters on a state and federal basis.
Merrick Benn, chair of Womble (US), said: “This team strengthens an area where clients are facing sustained regulatory pressure and heightened expectations around how compliance programmes operate in practice. We have been deliberate in building practices that combine legal depth with the infrastructure required to support clients operating nationally, and this addition reflects that approach.”
The majority of the new attorneys (12) will be based in the new Albany and Cleveland offices, while the rest will join Womble’s existing offices in Houston, Irvine and Washington DC.
The group’s move to Womble follows an announcement last week that 52-year-old firm McGlinchey Stafford is shutting down. The firm has about 150 lawyers across 18 offices in the Southeast and Northeast US, according to Law.com.
Taber Cathcart, co-leader of Womble’s financial services sector business, added: “This group enhances our ability to support clients as regulatory oversight continues to evolve at both the state and federal levels. Their national work advising consumer financial services providers – particularly through complex, multi-state licensing and compliance frameworks – adds meaningful reach and depth to our financial services practice.”
Edelman arrives after 25 years at McGlinchey, having previously spent 14 years at Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff.
He said: “We were looking for a platform with depth in adjacent transactional and litigation practices and the institutional commitment to support a nationally focused consumer financial services team. Womble offers the scale and resources that will enhance the ability of our attorneys and licensing professionals to provide a full suite of services for our clients in an integrated way.”
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