Gibson Dunn Adds Two Partners to Fine Technology and Financial Institutions Practice
March 27, 2023
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that Jason Cabral and Sara Weed have joined the firm’s New York and Washington DC offices, respectively. Cabral and Weed will continue their individual practice in regulatory and transactional matters for traditional financial services and FinTech clients, as well as advising clients in the development of payments, lending and deposit products and services.
“Sara has deep domain experience on the advisory and regulatory side of cryptocurrency and FinTech, as well as an excellent read on regulatory dynamics,” said Ashlie Beringer, co-chair of the FinTech and Digital Assets Practice Group. “She is a talented and well-regarded FinTech practitioner and her skills will be extremely valuable to our clients as both FinTech and traditional financial services continue to evolve. Her addition will further strengthen our FinTech and Digital Assets group, particularly in highly regulated FinTech advisory work and, with her experience as a former government regulator, in government engagement and investigation.”
“Jason will be a fantastic addition to the firm,” said Stephanie Brooker, co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice Group. “He has a unique blend of knowledge and experience with both traditional banking regulatory issues and fast-moving FinTech matters, but his experience also extends into transactional, policy and enforcement matters. His extensive experience will support our many practices across the firm.” “
“I am very excited to be joining Gibson Dunn,” said Cabral. “I look forward to leveraging my financial services regulatory experience to support our premier financial services regulatory practice and complement our existing areas of strength in litigation, investigative and transactional work.”
“I have long admired Gibson Dunn and have followed the firm’s expansion in its FinTech practice nationally and internationally,” said Weed. “I look forward to the opportunity to join my new colleagues to bring together a range of deep expertise – advisory, transactional and enforcement services – to create value on this premier platform.”
The arrival of Weed and Cabral follows several recent additions to Gibson Dunn’s robust bench of technology regulatory and transactional partners, including Jane Horvath (former Chief Privacy Officer at Apple) in Washington, DC, Vivek Mohan (former Head of Information Security Law at Apple) in Palo Alto, Stephenie Gosnell Handler (former Director of Cybersecurity Strategy and Digital Acceleration at McKinsey & Company) in Washington, DC, and Joel Harrison and Alison Beal in London.
About Jason Cabral
Cabral focuses his practice on federal and state financial services regulatory issues and complex transactions and regularly advises banks and non-bank financial services providers on a wide range of policy, legislative, regulatory, transactional, corporate governance, enforcement and other matters. He has significant experience advising US and non-US banks and financial services companies, FinTechs, payments companies, lending companies and companies in the digital asset space, as well as their service providers, on the application of federal and state banking, consumer protection, lending, money transfer and related laws and regulations to their investments, activities, products and services.
He regularly represents clients before the federal financial services regulatory agencies and state banking departments in a variety of matters, including regulatory filings, notifications and other filings in connection with mergers, acquisitions, minority investments and other transactions, chartering or licensing initiatives and enforcement matters. He also regularly advises clients on the establishment of commercial relationships to offer products and services, either independently or in partnership with banks or non-bank financial services providers, and related regulatory and consumer compliance matters.
Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Cabral practiced with Paul Hastings LLP, Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
About Sara Weed
Weed has a blended regulatory and transactional FinTech practice that supports companies throughout their lifecycle, spanning product development; regulatory strategy, including chartering, licenses and partnerships; support specific to supervisory investigations and other regulatory requests; regulatory due diligence related to acquisitions, investments and exit events; and defense of regulatory enforcement actions. She has extensive experience representing clients in supervisory engagements and regulatory investigations, including in New York State Department of Financial Services and multi-state banking investigations. Her clients range from traditional financial institutions to non-bank financial services and technology companies looking to offer payments, lending and custody products delivered exclusively through digital channels and often augmented with technology.
Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Weed practiced with Paul Hastings LLP. Previously, she worked as director and counsel in the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks, where she oversaw non-bank lenders and brokers, money services businesses and consumer finance companies. She has also previously worked internally as Operations & Regulatory Counsel at IBM and as Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending.
About Gibson Dunn’s FinTech and Digital Assets Practice
Gibson Dunn’s FinTech and Digital Assets Practice Group advises traditional and emerging companies on a wide range of regulatory, policy, enforcement, transactional and litigation matters worldwide. The practice also includes FinTech, payments, open banking, digital assets (including cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), stablecoins and security tokens) and blockchain technology. Gibson Dunn’s lawyers have a substantive and technical understanding of the ever-evolving world of FinTech and digital assets – a skill set that sets the team apart and is critical to comprehensive client advice.
Our team members have a wealth of extensive experience in private practice, in-house and at senior government level, and bring knowledge from different disciplines and perspectives. This allows us to seamlessly solve all important issues – from advising on regulatory and policy impacts to licensing and registration to product development and implementation. As relevant laws evolve globally, we are effective client advocates before legislative bodies, including the US Congress, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Accordingly, we can guide our clients through the implementation and registration processes that cut across regulatory agencies at the state, federal and cross-border levels.
When matters become contentious, we regularly represent clients in responding to some of the most sophisticated investigations by a variety of financial regulators in the US (at the state and federal level), Europe and Asia.
About Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice
Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice Group provides services in all disciplines, including above-the-board regulatory advisory; transaction design, planning and execution; advocate for US regulatory agencies and Congress; representation in connection with criminal and regulatory enforcement actions; legal advice and defense; and strategic consulting and crisis management.
Our regulatory experience includes advising and representing US and international banks and financial holding companies before US federal and state regulatory agencies. We advise on compliance with all aspects of the regulation imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act, including enhanced capital and liquidity standards, increased corporate governance expectations and the Volcker Rule. Our derivatives regulatory attorneys, who have significant Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) expertise, handle the full range of issues raised by Title VII of Dodd-Frank.
We advise all types of financial institutions, including banks, securities brokers, mutual funds, private equity funds, insurance companies and money services businesses, on compliance with US federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations and OFAC requirements.
