Orrick announced today that Barrie VanBrackle, an authority on payments and consumer financial services compliance, has joined the firm as a partner, resident in its Washington, D.C., office. Barrie joins from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips where she served as co-chair of the firm’s Global Payments and Consumer Financial Services practice groups.

Barrie focuses on three areas at the cross-section of the FinTech space: 1) consumer-facing financial and banking regulatory counseling and investigations; 2) payment card industry (PCI) and brand operating rules, including the PCI Data Security Standards; and 3) strategic transactions and deals on behalf of leading merchants, payment processors and FinTech vendors.  In addition, she has deep experience advising corporate and private equity clients in M&A contexts and other investments in FinTech.

“Virtually every one of our clients, in the tech sector and beyond, needs to navigate payment brand and privacy rules in connection with e-commerce operations, and regulators are increasingly aggressive in this area. Barrie adds to our team an advisor of the highest caliber on these business critical issues,” said Stephen Venuto, leader of Orrick’s Technology Companies Group, which Barrie will join. She will also work closely with Orrick’s global Cybersecurity & Data Privacy team.

“A significant focus area for our D.C. office is to expand our bench of trusted advisors with deep insights into the regulatory issues that are most important to our technology, financial services, and energy & infrastructure clients,” said Kyle Drefke, leader of Orrick’s Washington, D.C. office. “Adding a prominent practitioner like Barrie is right in line with our strategy.”

Tony Kim, head of Orrick’s Cybersecurity & Data Privacy practice, added, “Barrie’s payments expertise and FinTech focus will allow our team to provide life-cycle privacy and cyber services across counseling, investigations and litigation engagements for our global innovation clients.”

“I am excited to join a firm like Orrick that is serious about the technology and financial services sectors. The firm is a leading advisor to clients in the FinTech sector and has extensive experience working with both established and emerging companies in all areas of the market.  In addition, the Orrick platform offers tremendous sector-focused transactional and litigation resources to my clients, including clients that we already have in common,” said Barrie.

Barrie is a sought after speaker on the evolving regulatory and compliance issues surrounding payments and related e-commerce matters.  She earned her J.D. from Washington University School of Law and her B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.