K&L Gates Adds Banking and Fintech Partner in Boston

Boston - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP welcomes Grant F. Butler as a partner in the payments, banking regulation, and consumer financial services practice. Based in the firm’s Boston office, Butler brings nearly 15 years of experience in the financial services industry with a particular focus in financial services regulation, transactions, corporate governance, and compliance.

Butler has firsthand experience in how banks and fintech companies work and has deep knowledge of both federal and state prudential and consumer financial regulation. He has advised foreign and domestic financial institutions and fintech companies on a variety of complex regulatory matters such as Volcker Rule issues, the Bank Holding Company Act, capital and liquidity requirements, charter choice, state lender licensing, and the formation and regulation of state chartered trust companies. His transactional experience includes financial institution M&A, asset transactions, and bank partnerships.

Butler most recently served as executive vice president, chief legal officer, and secretary of Cognition Financial Corporation (formerly The First Marblehead Corporation), where he was responsible for legal, compliance, and regulatory affairs and was head of the legal, risk, and compliance department, which included the legal, compliance, enterprise risk management, information security, and internal audit teams.

Prior to joining Cognition Financial in 2017, Butler was a vice president and senior counsel at State Street Bank and Trust Company, where he provided legal advice and support across State Street globally, particularly with respect to bank regulatory, compliance, and state law issues. Previously, he was an associate in the financial services group of a global law firm, advising financial institutions on a variety of transactional and regulatory matters with particular emphasis on bank regulatory matters and financial institution mergers and acquisitions. He also served as the outside general counsel and secretary of a non-profit organization, taught a course at Boston University School of Law's Banking and Financial Law program, and participated in the drafting of financial law statutes in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

“Grant’s fintech and bank regulatory experience complements and deepens the strength of our existing payments, banking regulation, and consumer financial services group,” said Michael Scanlon, co-leader of the firm’s global policy and regulatory practice area. “We are thrilled to welcome Grant to the firm.”

K&L Gates’ payments, banking regulation, and consumer financial services group works with clients in nearly all aspects of payments, e-commerce, fintech, and retail banking products and services. The team has significant knowledge of traditional banking and payment products such as money transmission, credit, debit and prepaid cards, payroll, ACH, merchant acquiring, checks, remittances, and payment processing.

Chris Nasson, managing partner of the K&L Gates Boston office, commented: “We are excited to have Grant join the Boston office. He is a first-in-class banking and fintech lawyer who brings nearly two decades of hands-on experience of how banks and financial services firms work, and deep knowledge in highly-specialized areas of the law impacting our clients, such as the various aspects of prudential bank regulation and issues relating to fintech companies. We look forward to partnering with Grant to apply his unique skills to serve clients in Boston and across our international platform.”

Butler is among more than 120 partners and of counsel K&L Gates has welcomed across its platform since the beginning of 2020, including, in Boston, a 10-person patent team led by partners Hannah Koyfman, Ph.D. and David Lu, Ph.D., in March.