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 D.C. offices, respectively. Cabral and Weed will continue their individual practices 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 counseling and supervisory 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 skillset will be highly valuable to our clients as the both the FinTech and traditional financial services spaces continue to evolve. Her addition will further bolster our FinTech and Digital Assets group, particularly in highly regulated FinTech advisory work and, with her experience as a former state regulator, in government engagement and investigations.”
“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 mix of knowledge and experience of both traditional bank regulatory issues and fast-moving FinTech matters, but his experience also extends into transactional, policy and enforcement matters. His substantive experience will support our multiple practices across the firm.”
“I am very excited to join Gibson Dunn,” said Cabral. “I look forward to leveraging my financial services regulatory experience to support our preeminent financial services regulatory practices and complement our existing areas of strength in litigation, investigations and transactional work.”
“I’ve 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 in bringing together a range of deep expertise — advisory, transactional, and enforcement — to drive value on this premier platform.”
The arrival of Weed and Cabral comes after 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, D.C., Vivek Mohan (former Head of Information Security Law at Apple) in Palo Alto, Stephenie Gosnell Handler (former Director for Cybersecurity Strategy and Digital Acceleration at McKinsey & Company) in Washington, D.C., and Joel Harrison and Alison Beal in London.
About Jason Cabral
Cabral focuses his practice on federal and state financial services regulatory matters and complex transactions and regularly advises banks and non-bank financial services providers on a broad range of policy, legislative, regulatory, transactional, corporate governance, enforcement and other matters. He has substantial experience advising U.S. and non-U.S. banks and financial services companies, FinTechs, payments companies, lending companies, and companies in the digital asset space, as well as their service providers, regarding the application of federal and state banking, consumer protection, lending, money transmission 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 on a variety of matters, including regulatory applications, notices and other submissions in connection with mergers, acquisitions, minority investments and other transactions, chartering or licensing initiatives, and enforcement matters. He also regularly advises clients in 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 life cycles, spanning product development; regulatory strategy, including chartering, licensure, and partnerships; support specific to supervisory examinations and other regulatory inquiries; regulatory diligence incidental 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 companies and technology companies that are seeking to offer payments, lending, and depository products delivered exclusively through digital channels and often augmented by technology.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Weed practiced with Paul Hastings LLP. Prior, she worked as Director and Counsel in the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks, where she oversaw the supervision of non-bank mortgage lenders and brokers, money services businesses and consumer finance companies. She also previously served in-house 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 world-wide. 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 competence that sets the team apart and is essential for comprehensive client counselling.
Our team members have a wealth of extensive experience in private practice, in-house and at senior government levels, bringing knowledge from different disciplines and perspectives. This allows us to address seamlessly all significant issues – from counseling on regulatory and policy impacts to licensing and registration to product development and implementation. As relevant laws develop globally, we are effective client advocates before legislative bodies including the U.S. Congress, EU Parliament and EU Council. Accordingly, we can guide our clients through the implementation and registration processes that cut across regulatory agencies at state, federal and cross-border levels.
When matters turn contentious, we regularly represent clients in responding to some of the most sophisticated investigations brought by an array of financial regulators in the United States (at the state and federal level), Europe, and Asia.
About Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice
Gibson Dunn’s Financial Institutions Practice Group offers services in all disciplines, including across-the-board regulatory advice; transactional design, planning and execution; advocacy before U.S. regulatory agencies and Congress; representation in connection with criminal and regulatory enforcement actions; litigation counseling and defense; and strategic advice and crisis management.
Our regulatory experience includes counseling and representing U.S. and international banks and financial holding companies before U.S. federal and state regulatory agencies. We advise on compliance with all aspects of regulation mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, including enhanced capital and liquidity standards, heightened corporate governance expectations and the Volcker Rule. Our derivatives regulatory lawyers, 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 broker-dealers, mutual funds, private equity funds, insurance companies and money services businesses, on compliance with U.S. federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations and OFAC requirements.