O’Melveny Deepens Fintech Bench with Former CFPB Enforcement Lawyer Melissa Baal Guidorizzi
April 13, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Enhances Payments Practice Advising Clients on Digital Payments Landscape
WASHINGTON, DC—April 13, 2021—International law firm O’Melveny today announced that Melissa Baal Guidorizzi, former Senior Counsel for Policy and Strategy in the enforcement arm of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has joined the firm as counsel in Washington, DC. In her new role, Guidorizzi will be a member of O’Melveny’s Fintech and Financial Services practices.
Guidorizzi, who served at the CFPB from 2013 to 2021, brings a deep background in financial services following eight prior years as Associate General Counsel at Citigroup. Drawing on her government and in-house experience, she will advise traditional financial institutions as well as O’Melveny’s growing roster of emerging fintech companies on compliance, litigation, investigations, and enforcement matters.
Guidorizzi’s arrival also enhances O’Melveny’s Payments practice, which comprises lawyers with broad experience advising payments startups, established financial services companies, and Big Tech on the legal aspects of operating new digital payments products and services. O’Melveny counsels clients on the opportunities and risks of this booming sector, spanning financial regulatory counseling, new market entry, capital raising, M&A, and litigation.
Guidorizzi joins an impressive team of other senior financial industry advisors who have joined O’Melveny in the past three years from government and the private sector, including Laurel Loomis Rimon, a former Assistant US Attorney and enforcement lawyer at the CFPB; Braddock Stevenson, from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN); and Tod Cohen from Twitter, eBay, and Stubhub.
“We’re delighted to welcome Melissa to O’Melveny,” said Pamela Miller, Co-Chair of the firm’s Financial Services practice. “Her experience at the CFPB and in banking will be invaluable as our clients grapple with far-reaching regulatory changes in the wake of the pandemic. Melissa will play a key role in helping our clients stay on the right side of fast-changing policy.”
“As our clients navigate the explosive growth in digital transactions, we are delighted to welcome Melissa to our team,” added Eric Sibbitt, Chair of O’Melveny’s Fintech practice. “O’Melveny has long been a leader in traditional payments and now, with digital transactions becoming the norm across so many sectors, we are committed to helping our clients take advantage of these vast new opportunities while keeping pace with the evolving rules governing this new marketplace.”
During her time at the CFPB, Guidorizzi helped set the Bureau’s regulation and enforcement priorities for a host of payments markets including cryptocurrency, prepaid cards and accounts, remittances, traditional and digital payments, credit cards, and financial technology. In 2016, she received the CFPB Director’s Mission Achievement Award. Guidorizzi worked extensively on CFPB rulemaking guidance, external reports and policy statements and interpretation of relevant statutes used in executing exams and investigations. She also served as the Bureau’s in-house expert on auto finance issues.
At Citigroup, where she worked from 2002 to 2010, Guidorizzi implemented a broad range of compliance policies and procedures, including those concerning financial products, and personal and mortgage loans. She also managed litigation concerning state and federal predatory lending investigations, insurance class actions, and arbitrations.
Guidorizzi received her J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she was executive editor of the Cornell International Law Journal and vice president of the Asian-American Law Students Association. She earned a B.A. in Government from Cornell University.
The O’Melveny Payments practice advises clients on sophisticated and forward-looking strategies while also helping to anticipate and manage government inquiries and actions. The group includes lawyers with long tenures in government regulatory bodies as well as those who managed payment functions at Silicon Valley technology firms.
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Contact:
Christopher Rieck
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
+1 212 326 2218
crieck@omm.com