LK Greenbacker
Of Counsel
Paul Hastings
Biography
Lauren Kelly Greenbacker is Of Counsel in the Corporate department of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She is a member of the Fintech and Payment Systems practice and focuses on regulatory, transactional, and compliance matters relating to bank and non-bank financial institutions. Ms. Greenbacker provides routine guidance on regulatory issues within the banking and payments space, including on state and federal money transmission, consumer protection (e.g., fair lending, Truth in Lending Act/Regulation Z), anti-money laundering, state lender licensing and cryptocurrency-related matters. She also advises financial and non-financial firms on issues related to U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.
As part of her transactional practice, she prepares and negotiates agreements by and between banks, emerging companies, non-bank lenders, card networks, money transmitters, program managers and others within the banking and financial technology sector. Ms. Greenbacker also represents individuals and entities in enforcement actions before state and federal regulatory bodies. In 2015, Ms. Greenbacker spent five months seconded to Credit Suisse, where she worked with the Bank Regulatory Compliance group.
Ms. Greenbacker received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2014, where she was a Silverman-Rodin scholar and graduated cum laude with a Certificate in Management from the Wharton School. Ms. Greenbacker received a B.A., with Highest Honors and Highest Distinction, in English and in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011. Ms. Greenbacker is admitted to practice law in Georgia, North Carolina and the District of Columbia.
How is the nominee propelling the industry forward?
Ms. Greenbacker’s practice is at the forefront of innovation in payments and financial services. She has a comprehensive knowledge of the regulatory framework governing financial services, and excels at applying this regulatory knowledge to novel and emerging payment technologies.
By way of example, she has served as regulatory counsel in two landmark bankruptcy cases within the financial services space, in which she applied regulatory expertise in the context of novel and complex issues arising at the intersection of bankruptcy, money transmission, cryptocurrency regulation and general consumer protection considerations. Specifically, she represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of FTX and its 100+ affiliates in one of the largest chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in history, valued at over $32 billion, and served as regulatory counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings of Voyager, the first ever bankruptcy of a broadly-licensed money transmitter.
Ms. Greenbacker is also passionate about supporting clients with a global reach on grappling with the challenges posed by the patchwork of financial services regulation globally. For example, she has advised a major crowdfunding platform in development of payment solutions across dozens of jurisdictions, engaging local counsel globally to inform the platform’s business strategy in light of the regulatory framework in each jurisdiction. Ms. Greenbacker also routinely advises financial services clients on applicability of U.S. sanctions and other related compliance matters, which are made increasingly complex when mapped onto novel financial products and services that require innovative approaches to compliance.
Where do you see the nominee succeeding in the future?
Ms. Greenbacker’s practice will continue to flourish as technology drives the various players in financial services to converge – traditional financial institutions (e.g., banks), fintechs (e.g., technology platforms), and digital asset providers (e.g., cryptocurrency exchanges). As banks embrace new technologies to enable them to provide innovative products and services that their customers demand, they become more like the fintechs with which they compete, and fintechs that seek regulatory capabilities through licensing and chartering likewise transform fintechs into banks and other financial institutions. Because of this convergence, the financial service space will demand broad legal expertise that keeps pace with innovation, and cuts across a wide range of financial services. Ms. Greenbacker is passionate about innovation in financial services and is ready and willing to meet these challenges.