The contracts that power fintech and payments businesses — processing agreements, platform terms, merchant agreements, referral arrangements, and bank partnership contracts — define how revenue flows and how risk is allocated. We draft, negotiate, and structure these relationships with an eye toward both legal durability and commercial flexibility. Our team brings hard-won experience to high-stakes negotiations with card networks, sponsor banks, and technology vendors, and we help clients build scalable contract frameworks that hold up as their businesses grow.
The fintech and payments sector is one of the most active deal environments in the economy, and the diligence considerations are unlike those in any other industry. We advise buyers, sellers, investors, and boards on the full transaction lifecycle — from structuring and negotiation through closing and integration. Our team understands what makes fintech deals different: the portability of money transmission licenses, the assignability of processing relationships, the valuation of residual income streams, and the regulatory change-of-control considerations that can make or break a deal timeline.
Regulatory complexity is not a side issue in fintech — it is the terrain. Our attorneys advise on federal and state money transmission licensing, the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering requirements, consumer protection laws, and the rapidly evolving state and federal fintech regulatory landscape. We help clients build compliance management systems designed to withstand examination, respond to enforcement actions, and structure partnerships in ways that satisfy both regulators and business objectives. For bank partners, we provide hands-on guidance on third-party risk management, fair lending, and supervisory expectations from the OCC, FDIC, and Federal Reserve.
Few industries are entrusted with more sensitive consumer data than fintech and payments. We counsel clients on compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, state consumer privacy laws, PCI DSS, and the growing body of federal and state data protection requirements. Our team designs privacy programs built for regulatory scrutiny and consumer trust, advises on incident response planning and breach notification obligations, and guides clients through the full arc of a cybersecurity incident — from investigation and notification through regulatory response and litigation defense.
In fintech, proprietary technology is often the most valuable asset on the balance sheet. We protect and commercialize that value through patent, trademark, and trade secret strategies tailored to financial technology. Our team structures and negotiates technology licensing arrangements, SaaS agreements, API access terms, and software development contracts that reflect commercial intent and protect our clients' rights — whether they are licensing their platform to a bank or integrating a third-party technology into their payments stack.
We advise clients across the digital asset spectrum — from token offerings and stablecoin programs to decentralized finance applications and blockchain-based settlement solutions. Our team tracks the rapidly shifting federal and state regulatory frameworks governing digital assets and helps clients build strategies that work under current rules while anticipating what comes next. We also counsel traditional financial institutions exploring tokenization, blockchain settlement, and digital asset custody.
Growth in fintech runs on capital, and securing it on favorable terms requires counsel who understands both the transaction structures and the industry dynamics that inform valuation and investor expectations. We represent companies and investors in venture financings, growth equity rounds, convertible note and SAFE transactions, and debt facilities. We also advise on board composition, protective provisions, equity incentive design, and — for later-stage companies — pre-IPO readiness and strategic financing alternatives.
When disputes arise, context matters. Our Litigation team's deep familiarity with the fintech and payments industry — its commercial structures, regulatory frameworks, and network rules — translates directly into better risk assessment and more effective advocacy. We handle commercial contract disputes, IP litigation, regulatory enforcement proceedings, consumer class actions, and card network disputes. Because fintech and payments companies are frequent targets of government investigations and regulatory enforcement actions — and are routinely served with subpoenas seeking transaction records, customer data, and compliance documentation — we also maintain an active investigations practice. We represent clients in internal investigations, grand jury and regulatory subpoena responses (whether as a third party or as the subject of an investigation), and proceedings before federal and state agencies. Our litigators work in close coordination with our transactional and regulatory colleagues, ensuring that how we fight reflects what our clients are trying to build.
We have worked inside companies like yours. Our team includes former in-house counsel from leading fintech and payments companies — not attorneys who learned the industry from the outside. That experience changes how we counsel clients, because we understand what it actually costs when legal advice doesn't account for operational reality.
One team. No silos. We handle commercial, regulatory, transactional, IP, privacy, and litigation matters in a fully integrated fashion. That means fewer hand-offs, less duplication, and counsel that stays consistent across every workstream.
National reach, genuine industry depth. With attorneys across our offices nationwide, we advise clients in every U.S. market on the multi-state regulatory landscape that defines the fintech and payments industry — not just the law of one state.
We operate at your speed. Fintech and payments companies don't wait, and neither do we. We structure engagements to match the pace of innovation, delivering counsel that is both responsive and rigorous.