Gibson Dunn Launches Global Financial Regulatory Practice

Client Alert  |  August 5, 2021


Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has launched a Global Financial Regulatory Practice, which provides comprehensive advice to financial institutions on all aspects of regulatory compliance, enforcement and transactions.

The launch of this practice draws together our market-leading regulatory lawyers across the world’s leading financial centers, and will be led by three of the firm’s most experienced leaders in this field:

William HallattMichelle KirschnerJeffrey Steiner
William R. Hallatt
Partner, Hong Kong
Michelle M. Kirschner
Partner, London
Jeffrey L. Steiner
Partner, Washington, D.C.

William Hallatt joined Gibson Dunn’s Hong Kong office in May 2021 from Herbert Smith Freehills along with an experienced financial services regulatory team comprised of associates Emily Rumble, Becky Chung and Arnold Pun. Michelle Kirschner joined Gibson Dunn’s London office in October 2019 while Jeffrey Steiner was promoted to partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office in January of the same year. Our broader practice group includes attorneys across the globe who have significant in-house experience within financial institutions or have worked in senior positions within the world’s most prominent regulatory and policy agencies.

The practice’s core services include:

  • advising on complex conduct and governance issues, including the implementation of senior management accountability regimes and advising senior management and boards of directors on culture and conduct risk;
  • handling regulatory issues which arise in merger and acquisition transactions, including on a cross-border basis;
  • representing end users that are impacted by financial regulation;
  • preparing applications for licenses and registrations, and engagement with regulators to seek relief, exemptions and interpretations in connection with regulatory compliance matters;
  • advising on financial policy matters, including helping to shape the policies that impact our clients;
  • advising fintech and cryptocurrency businesses on the operation of their businesses inside and outside of the regulatory perimeter;
  • defending clients in relation to their most significant regulatory investigations and enforcement matters on high profile issues such as market misconduct, governance failings, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing compliance, cybersecurity breaches, and systems and controls failures; and
  • conducting internal reviews and investigations, including at the request of regulators or in parallel with their inquiries.

We are trusted advisers to our clients, providing strategic advice in relation to regulatory change and the implementation of new requirements across the jurisdictions in which we operate. We regularly represent our clients before regulators on a formal and informal basis on a range of matters. We also work closely with regulators and leading industry associations and have led industry responses to high profile proposed reforms in a range of jurisdictions.

Stay Tuned!
The practice’s co-chairs will be accompanied by other senior members of the practice to provide a comprehensive overview of recent financial regulatory trends globally in a webinar coming this Fall.