Profile
Lisa M. Lanham focuses her practice on state licensing and regulatory compliance obligations for a wide array of consumer financial services companies. Her role encompasses work with a diverse range of clients, including residential and commercial mortgage brokers, lenders, servicers, loan fulfilment providers, student, consumer, and solar loan lenders and servicers, marketplace lenders, and entities offering retail installment contracts for consumer goods. Moreover, she advises investors engaged in secondary market activities. Lisa also extends her support to emerging fintech firms, helping them to comply with necessary state licensing requirements and develop products in these realms while keeping regulatory demands in check.
A large part of Lisa’s role involves working closely with regulators such as the New York State Department of Financial Services to facilitate her clients’ pursuit of necessary business licenses and approvals. This not only includes completing audits and examinations but also covering intricate disclosure issues and reporting changes of ownership, executive management, and qualifying individuals. In addition to these tasks, Lisa was involved in the development of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry (NMLS) 2.0 system. She handles virtually all aspects of the NMLS, including submissions and amendments of company application forms and electronic surety bonds.
Her contributions extend to representation and regulatory counsel in areas such as structured finance, securitization, secondary market transactions, licensing matters in mergers and acquisitions transactions, regulatory agency coordination for large-scale multistate transactions, and various financial service operations. In addressing state licensing matters, Lisa has contributed to notable projects such as assisting international crypto exchanges enter into the U.S. market by setting up compliant subsidiaries.
Lisa’s work also includes the reporting of material licensing changes, providing technical reviews, analyzing proposed business models in the context of regulatory compliance issues, assisting with the development of policies and procedures for regulatory compliance concerns, negotiating findings before examination report finalization, and managing international licensing issues amidst dynamic regulatory environment.
Concentrations
- Business and transactions
- Banking and financial services
- Consumer financial services
- Consumer financial services licensing and regulatory compliance
- Mortgage banking
- Fintech and payment solutions
- Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency
- Artificial intelligence
- Anti-Money Laundering
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented consumer and commercial lenders, brokers, servicers, and other clients leveraging AI in their underwriting models in state licensing matters.°
- Provided regulatory counsel to an international crypto exchange seeking to enter into the U.S. market, which included a large state licensing project to set up a U.S. subsidiary and U.S.-compliance program prior to the client engaging in business.°
- Represented and provided counsel on structured finance, securitization, and other secondary market transactions on the applicability of related transaction parties’ licenses.°
- Represented and provided counsel to parties on licensing concerns related to merger and acquisition transactions.°
- Coordinated with regulatory agencies, including the New York State Department of Financial Services, to gain time-sensitive approvals necessary to complete large-scale multistate transactions.°
- Provided technical review and support for mortgage call report, money services businesses call report, and state-specific report filing requirements.°
- Coordinated with key control persons to assist with the reporting of material licensing changes.°
- Responded to client inquiries regarding state, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Island consumer finance laws and applicable federal regulations. Assisted clients with registration and compliance issues related to government services agencies (e.g., HUD/FHA, Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA, USDA).°
- Represented clients in both adversarial and non-adversarial proceedings before state and federal regulatory agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.°
- Analyzed proposed business models within the context of regulatory compliance matters and licensing requirements associated with the buildout and daily operations of national financial services operations, including those that wish to utilize financial technology projects, including blockchain and distributed ledger technology, digital asset trading platforms, sponsors of tokenized platforms, and operators of emerging payments systems.°
- Prepared multistate regulatory surveys of regulatory compliance issues for both financial service providers and consumer service providers.°
- Assisted with the development of policies, procedures, and strategic initiatives to proactively address regulatory compliance deficiencies.°
- Performed examination preparedness reviews of policies and procedures scrutinized in routine and special examinations by state regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.°
- Reviewed examination requests, documents, and loan files gathered for response and acted as an intermediary during the examination process between the regulatory agent and the client. Negotiated findings with examiners before the examination report was finalized, as well as identified mutually agreeable remediation actions in lieu of issuance of a formal action.°
- Assisted companies with international licensing issues in a changing regulatory environment.°
°The above representations were handled by Ms. Lanham prior to her joining Greenberg Traurig, P.A
- Guest Lecturer and Team Leader, University of Miami School of Law, LawWithoutWalls, 2015-Present
- Preferred Outside Licensing and Regulatory Counsel, KikOff Lending, LLC,
- Preferred Outside Licensing and Regulatory Counsel, The Center for NYC Neighborhoods and Sustainable Neighborhoods, LLC,
- Legal Intern, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2012
- Legal Intern, The Trump Organization & Trump Dezer Development, 2011-2012
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Legal 500 United States, 2023
- Financial Services Regulation, 2023
- Fintech, 2023
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, "Ones to Watch," Corporate Governance and Compliance Law, 2021
- Member, American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators
- Member, Industry Advisory Council, 2018-2022
- Member, CSBS State Examination System Working Group, 2018-2019
- Member, AARMR Foreign Entity Working Group
- Affiliate Member, American Financial Services Association
- Member, SRR Industry Advisory Council
- Board Member, Aspire to Autonomy, Inc., 2022-Present
Credentials
-
J.D., cum laude, University of Miami
- Member, University of Miami Law Review
- A.A.S., New York University
- B.A., New York University
- New York
- Pennsylvania