Orrick has added a six-lawyer financial services and fintech regulatory team led by Lisa Lanham, who joins the firm as a partner in Miami and will serve as its Head of Fintech Licensing. Lanham moves from Greenberg Traurig, where she was a shareholder, bringing one counsel from Washington, D.C. and four associates based in Miami with her.
She is recognised nationally by Legal 500 for advising consumer and commercial financial institutions on federal and state regulatory compliance, and her practice spans licensing strategy, enforcement readiness, supervisory and examination work, and payments-related counselling, alongside financings and M&A transactions that help clients scale into new markets.
The hire adds to a financial services and fintech regulatory and enforcement practice that already numbers more than 60 lawyers at Orrick, a group the firm expanded materially through its 2023 combination with Buckley.
Orrick’s regulatory practice advises banks, lenders and fintech companies across federal and state jurisdictions as clients confront consumer and commercial finance issues tied to AI and crypto adoption, spanning product counselling, policy and compliance work, investigations and enforcement litigation.
Lanham’s arrival follows the firm’s recruitment last autumn of Dan Ullman, the former Chief Trial Attorney at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who now co-heads Orrick’s Crypto practice.
Miami has drawn fintech regulatory talent as firms position lawyers close to payments and digital-asset businesses relocating to South Florida. Ken Wiggins, who leads the Miami office Orrick opened last year, said the city’s growth as a financial innovation hub has created demand for specialists on the ground rather than served remotely from New York or Washington.
Katy Ryan, who leads Orrick’s Financial & Fintech Advisory practice group, pointed to the widening gap between federal and state regulatory approaches to technology-driven financial products as a driver of client demand for the expanded team.
Firm chair Mitch Zuklie framed the addition as central to serving both established institutions and disruptive new entrants from a single practice.
Orrick’s enlarged Miami bench signals a firm betting that licensing and enforcement-readiness work will concentrate where digital-asset and payments businesses choose to headquarter. In-house counsel at banks and fintech companies operating across multiple states now have a materially deeper team to call on in South Florida when weighing outside counsel for licensing strategy.