Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, announced new co-chairs of the firm’s industry-leading financial services group, with the appointment of Richard Gottlieb, Brian Korn and Donna Wilson. Gottlieb is a partner in the firm’s Chicago office, Korn is based in Manhattan, and Wilson practices in Manatt’s Los Angeles office.
“Financial services has dramatically changed in the past ten years with the advent of Dodd-Frank reforms, digital processes and fintech,” Korn said. “Our group challenges traditional law firm approaches by aligning our functions with client demands. Manatt’s transactional, regulatory and litigation professionals work together seamlessly to provide thoughtful, expert 360-degree solutions.”
Since Manatt’s founding by two banking lawyers in 1965, the firm has built one of the largest and most comprehensive financial services teams in the United States, including with respect to regulatory and compliance matters, financial transactions, examinations, enforcement and litigation.
“When it comes to financial services, thinking outside the box and innovating is in Manatt’s DNA,” Wilson said. “Our aim is to help clients stay one step ahead in this changing — and challenging — environment.”
“Speaking for Brian and Donna, we couldn’t be prouder to lead this extraordinary group of lawyers,” Gottlieb said of the appointments.
Richard Gottlieb is a financial services partner, resident in both the firm’s Chicago and Los Angeles offices. Long recognized by Chambers & Partners as one of the nation’s leading financial services attorneys, Gottlieb’s practice focuses on advising and representing a broad range of financial institutions, insurers, retailers and other organizations in litigation and regulatory matters. In addition to counseling financial service entities regarding regulatory and compliance matters, he defends such clients in connection with, among other things, consumer class action suits, state and federal financial regulatory proceedings and examinations, alleged consumer lending violations, and claims relating to data security and privacy breaches.
Brian Korn is a partner in the capital markets practice group and also chair of the digital finance and marketplace lending group. He is based in the firm’s New York City office, and his practice focuses on digital finance, marketplace lending and fintech, as well as corporate finance transactions, including initial public offerings, early-stage and startup venture financings, and mature corporate and high-yield debt finance. Under his leadership, Manatt was nominated “Law Firm of the Year” by LendIt in 2017. Korn has made multiple appearances on Fox Business Television, Bloomberg, CCTV America and National Public Radio commenting on fintech, IPOs, online lending and crowdfunding.
Donna Wilson is nationally-recognized for her high-profile, bet-the-company work on behalf of companies facing litigation and government enforcement actions, with a focus on both the consumer financial services and privacy and data security spaces. Wilson’s extensive crisis and risk management experience, coupled with her broad subject matter knowledge and precedent-setting litigation experience, makes her highly valued by in-house counsel, C-suite executives and boards of directors in preemptively mitigating risk, and in navigating those risks that become full-blown exposure. She has successfully represented clients including banks, mortgage servicers, auto finance companies, retailers and other financial services providers, as well as clients in other regulated industries, in a range of complex, high-stakes matters.