Gabriella Alonso advises clients on financial services matters, as well as corporate disputes. She prepares submissions for state and federal courts and helps clients as they progress through each stage of litigation.

In law school, Gabriella served as a student case worker for the Advanced Administrative Litigation Clinic, where she assisted coal miners and surviving family members pursue claims for Federal Black Lung benefits.

Keith Anderson is a litigation and labor & employment partner and concentrates his practice on representing financial institutions in the financial services industry, as well as representing employers in employment matters. He has handled multiple litigated matters under the FLSA, ADA, ADEA, FMLA and claims of discrimination and retaliation, as well as counseling employers on compliance and effective employment policies.

Marc James Ayers represents individual, corporate and governmental clients before state and federal appellate and trial courts. Marc is listed in Best Lawyers in America in the field of Appellate Law, and has handled numerous appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Alabama Supreme Court, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, and other state appellate courts. He has also represented clients on petitions for certiorari and amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s Appellate Litigation Group. View articles by Marc

Dylan Black focuses his practice on complex civil litigation in state and federal courts, with particular emphasis on class actions, state and federal securities fraud cases, professional liability matters, and insurance coverage litigation. His recent class action experience includes the successful defense of clients facing putative nationwide classes in cases alleging violations of consumer protection statutes such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.

Jeffrey Blackwood has practiced in the Jackson office for over 22 years and has handled a variety of complex commercial litigation matters. He recently represented a private equity firm in a breach of contract matter during the pandemic that involved numerous hearings and over 25 depositions, all conducted remotely. He is actively representing broker-dealers and registered investment advisors in FINRA arbitrations and investigations before the Mississippi Secretary of State Securities Division. Jeffrey has successfully tried a case in Delaware Chancery Court representing a trust in litigation involving investment LLCs, where the client prevailed and was awarded attorneys’ fees, and he recently obtained dismissal of a putative class action in federal court in Mississippi representing a healthcare client. He routinely speaks and writes on topics related to securities regulatory and enforcement matters. He also has significant experience in representing life insurance companies and brokers in a variety of matters, including sales practice litigation, regulatory actions and professional negligence actions.

Anna-Katherine Bowman’s practice focuses primarily on individual and commercial litigation matters across Alabama, including trials and appeals at the state and federal levels. She advises clients on substantive areas of law, as well as best practices for reducing exposure to litigation. View article by Anna-Katherine

Elizabeth Brusa is an associate in the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group focusing on small dollar lending, bankruptcy, and privacy, security and innovation. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional for the U.S. Private-Sector (CIPP/US). Elizabeth counsels financial services clients on matters related to bankruptcy proceedings, bankruptcy fraud and abuse, and Chapter 11 filings.

Jason Bushby provides regulatory compliance, examination, enforcement, and litigation assistance to a range of financial services clients across the country. He serves as counsel to the American Bankers Association and general counsel to the Alabama Consumer Finance Association. He is also a frequent speaker during webinars and trade association presentations on regulatory compliance issues.

Tim Capria’s practice focuses on acquiring intellectual property, patent opinion practice and enforcing intellectual property rights. Tim has a wide range of experience prosecuting patents domestically and internationally, and he conducts freedom to operate opinions and invalidity opinions applicable to the U.S. and other countries. He primarily prosecutes patents in the life sciences and medical device fields and provides trademark counsel for clients operating in diverse sectors.

Aaron Chastain represents financial services institutions, healthcare companies, and other businesses in a broad range of litigation and compliance-related matters. Aaron has advised student loan and mortgage loan originators and servicers in complying with the complex universe of regulation and state lien laws, as well as in handling finance-related litigation, such as claims for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), wrongful foreclosure, violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). He has specific experience advising clients in the realms of student and mortgage lending, servicing, and operations.

Anna Craft advises financial services companies on a variety of complex compliance and regulatory matters. Her practice has focused on the negotiation and implementation of consent judgments with various regulators and the proactive implementation of changes to business practices that are required as a result of new statutes and regulations. Anna uses her experience with and knowledge of the financial services industry to identify and mitigate risks that may arise in various business practices as a result of a dynamic and unpredictable regulatory environment. She works directly with her clients’ internal legal department and business leaders to identify the most efficient and effective measures to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local requirements or to identify and remediate areas of concern. Her experience advising multiple clients on the implementation of Servicing Standards required by the National Mortgage Settlement has given her a broad understanding of the main areas of concern facing the financial services industry today.

Alex Dugan regularly represents financial services and mortgage company clients with compliance matters, including risk management and remediation, state investigations, regulatory compliance, and operational implementation of legal guidelines. Alex’s practice focuses on the bankruptcy compliance and regulatory concerns that her clients face. She is also a member of the firm’s Auto Finance and Payment Systems industry teams.

Hall Eady is a commercial and financial services litigator. For financial services companies, his practice includes defending against borrower and customer-driven claims, and providing advice regarding recoupment options, including lien rights, closing errors, title insurance, mortgage insurance and correspondent/broker agreements. For commercial clients, his practice includes representing businesses in contract negotiations, general commercial and contract disputes, insurance claims, business owner disputes, real property disputes and claims against professional service providers including insurance brokers. Hall has also represented a number of construction companies in contract negotiations and against large claims of defective construction.

Chris Friedman is a regulatory compliance attorney and litigator who focuses on helping consumer finance companies and small business lenders, as well as banks, fintech companies, and other participants in the financial services industry, address the challenges of operating in a highly regulated sector. Chris focuses on both small business lenders and alternative business finance products and has helped non-bank small business lenders, banks who make small business loans, commercial credit counselors, lead generators, and others in the industry. He helps clients launch new products, conduct due diligence, engage in compliance reviews, evaluate litigation risk, and solve some of the unique legal problems faced by companies who work with small businesses. In that vein, Chris has written extensively about the upcoming rulemaking related to Dodd-Frank 1071, which will require data collection and reporting by companies making loans to certain small businesses.

Graham Gerhardt represents financial institutions in civil litigation throughout the country. He regularly assists clients in both the forward mortgage and reverse mortgage industries. Graham frequently litigates in federal court where he defends lenders and loan servicers accused of violating federal statutes, most commonly TILA, RESPA, the FDCPA, the FCRA, and the TCPA. He also represents clients in state court, defending against claims such as wrongful foreclosure, fraud and deceptive trade practices. Graham oversees these suits through all stages of the legal process, including bench trials, jury trials and frequent depositions and mediations.

Lee Gilley represents financial institutions, including banks, mortgage companies, debt collectors, small dollar lenders, and payment systems providers (credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, mobile payments, etc.) in litigation and regulatory matters related to compliance with the Card Act, ECOA, EFTA, FCRA, FDCPA, GLBA, HPA, RESPA, TILA, TCPA, CFPB regulations, and numerous other state laws and regulations. Lee is a member of Bradley’s Banking and Financial Services Practice Group, as well as the firm’s Payments and Small Dollar & Unsecured Lending industry teams.

Chris Glenos is a creditor’s rights attorney with extensive experience in complex insolvency and bankruptcy-related litigation. He routinely represents creditor clients in commercial litigation, fraudulent transfer and preference actions, contested bankruptcy matters, lender liability claims, commercial foreclosures, executions, replevin actions and prejudgment seizures. Chris has also successfully represented lender clients in numerous complex workouts and restructurings outside of court.

Glenn Glover has a broad practice that includes representing creditors in out-of-court workouts, bankruptcy cases, and a variety of litigation settings. Glenn also has substantial experience in representing mortgage servicers and other financial institutions in mortgage-related litigation in bankruptcy courts. He has practiced in the area of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights for over 14 years.

Melissa Gutierrez’s practice is primarily focused on commercial litigation matters, with an emphasis on financial services, consumer finance, and real estate litigation. She received her J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, where she was Senior Articles Editor of the Houston Journal of International Law and a member of Moot Court.

Kelley Hails focuses her practice on helping banks and other financial institutions with regulatory compliance matters. As part of her regulatory compliance practice, Kelley assists clients in the financial services and mortgage industries as they navigate, implement, and manage compliance with various originating and servicing obligations imposed on them by federal and state regulators, including the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure requirements, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP), and other CFPB and state consumer protection requirements. She regularly advises clients on the application of such laws in connection with day-to-day operations, maintenance or development of policies and procedures, product advertising and development, mock regulatory examination reviews, risk assessments, regulatory examinations, and error correction. Kelley also has experience in a variety of commercial lending transactions.

Kelley is fluent in Spanish and assists clients with matters involving Spanish-language needs.

Christy Hancock’s practice is dedicated to financial services regulatory compliance and litigation. Her work with mortgage servicing and financial institution clients has given her a broad base of knowledge regarding laws affecting the mortgage servicing business, including bankruptcy and foreclosure best practices, payment application, correspondence requirements, allowable fees, loan modifications, escrow requirements, and property preservation. In recent years, the majority of her practice has focused on advising large financial institutions on bankruptcy-related regulatory matters and large-scale remediation projects.

Meade Hartfield has represented clients nationwide in a variety of industries, including financial services, drug and medical device, automotive, aviation, industrial equipment, insurance, and environmental. Her financial services practice includes representing financial institutions and mortgage companies in defensive litigation matters throughout the country. View articles by Meade.

Erin Illman is a dynamic problem solver with a strong understanding of U.S. and international private-sector privacy laws and regulations and the legal requirements for the transfer of sensitive personal data to/from the United States, the European Union and other jurisdictions. She regularly advises clients on CCPA, GLBA, HIPAA, COPPA, CAN-SPAM, FCRA, security breach notification laws, and other U.S. state and federal privacy and data security requirements, and global data protection laws. In addition to providing proactive privacy and information security compliance and legal advice, Erin manages privacy-related enforcement actions and litigation. Her practice includes representing companies in reactive incident response situations, including insider cybersecurity threats, electronic and physical theft of trade secrets, and investigation, analysis, and notification efforts with respect to security incidents and breaches.

Nicole Jones is an associate in the Banking and Financial Services and Litigation practice groups. Her practice focuses on defending claims and advising financial institutions on compliance with state and federal regulations, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Nicole also has experience assisting clients in responding to and resolving government investigations by federal and state regulators.

Riley Key works with financial services clients across the country facing regulatory and enforcement challenges related to obligations imposed by the CFPB, as well as various other federal and state laws. Specifically, Riley helps clients navigate compliance with the Mortgage Servicing Final Rules in Regulations X and Z and the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule, as well as a host of federal and state regulations, including TILA, RESPA, FDCPA, FCRA, and ECOA. View articles by Riley.

Jonathan Kolodziej represents all types of consumer financial service providers in regulatory compliance, examination and enforcement matters. Through this work, he has assisted bank and non-bank mortgage servicers, mortgage originators, debt collectors, depository institutions, credit card issuers, small dollar lenders, reverse mortgage companies, investment firms, and various industry trade associations.

Rachel LaBruyere is a privacy and litigation associate in Bradley’s Charlotte office. She regularly advises clients on CCPA and GDPR compliance issues. Before joining Bradley, Rachel served as a Legal Intern in the United States Attorneys’ Office and an Appellate Litigation Intern in the Office of the General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Prior to law school, Rachel spent more than five years managing digital strategy for technology companies.

David Lucas provides legal strategy for technology and business. He applies legal, technological and operational experience to craft strategic advice on a variety of intellectual property, international trade and complex litigation matters.

Robert Maddox practices in Financial Services Litigation with an emphasis in mortgage litigation and compliance and commercial/real estate litigation. He is a Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB) and is one of only a handful of attorneys in the nation who have achieved this status. His national practice focuses primarily on representing two specific industries: financial institutions and mortgage companies. View articles by Robert

Erin Malone-Smolla joined the firm as an associate in the Litigation and Bankruptcy Practice Groups.

Erin graduated from Duke University School of Law, where she was managing editor of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy. She also earned a Master of Education degree from Lipscomb University and a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University.

Alex McFall primarily represents banks, servicers and other financial institutions in civil litigation, with an emphasis in residential and commercial lending. Alex has defended financial institutions against claims for breach of contract, fraud, alleged violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and Fair Housing Act (FHA). She has substantial experience defending financial institutions in HOA super-priority lien litigation and has contributed frequently to the firm’s Financial Services Perspectives blog regarding super-priority lien litigation.

Lyndsay Medlin assists clients across industries with a variety of litigation, internal investigation, and compliance needs. Her experience includes assisting clients with drafting and developing policies and best practices to ensure compliance and prevent litigation; investigating and responding to internal whistleblower allegations, federal civil investigative demands, and state regulatory inquiries for financial services, healthcare, life sciences, and government contractor clients, and working closely with clients across industries to protect their business interests nationwide. With privacy and cybersecurity becoming paramount concerns for businesses, Lyndsay is also skilled at counseling clients regarding the nuances of privacy notices, protection of customer and client personal information, and for covered financial services clients, Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance.

Ben Milam practices in the areas of financial services litigation and policyholder insurance coverage. Ben represents mortgage lenders on a variety of claims, including unfair trade practices, wrongful foreclosure, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). He also represents policyholders in insurance coverage disputes, including title and liability insurance matters.

David Miller is an associate in Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group. Prior to joining the firm, David clerked for the Hon. Ed Kinkeade of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

Mark Miller focuses his practice on tax matters, including structuring of corporate, partnership and limited liability company transactions such as formation, joint ventures, acquisitions, dispositions, and reorganizations. Mark is also very active in the representation of tax-exempt organizations on issues relating to reporting compliance, executive compensation, private inurement, intermediate sanctions, and unrelated business taxable income. Mark also has substantial experience in the resolution of federal tax controversies, including the representation of clients in disputes before the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Courts, the Internal Revenue Service Appeals and Examination Division, and the Internal Revenue Service National Office.

Cathy Moore represents debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, utilities, purchasers of distressed assets and other clients in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, out of court restructurings, and bankruptcy asset sales and purchases. Cathy’s clients operate in the energy, construction, financial services, and manufacturing sectors. She has significant experience representing clients in complex commercial litigation in state, federal and bankruptcy courts, including bankruptcy-related litigation involving preferences, fraudulent transfers, and claims objections.

Marc Nardone has extensive experience drafting pleadings, discovery, and motions in constitutional litigation involving the Second Amendment. He also has co-authored merits briefs before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as well as numerous amicus briefs before various federal Courts of Appeals.

Andrew Narod is an experienced litigator who represents bank and non-bank financial services institutions and other types of businesses in class-action litigation, complex commercial litigation, and other high-profile litigation disputes nationwide. His clients entrust him to navigate some of their most sensitive litigation matters in some of the most difficult venues in the country.

Preston Neel is a member of the firm’s Litigation and Banking and Financial Services practice groups. His practice concentrates on representing financial institutions and mortgage companies in civil litigation. Preston defends causes of action including alleged violations of TILA, RESPA, FDCPA, and FCRA. He also litigates cases throughout the Southeast involving allegations of predatory lending, wrongful foreclosure, breach of contract, and deceptive trade practices. View articles by Preston

Bob Niemi is a Senior Advisor* for Financial Services in Bradley’s Charlotte and Washington, D.C. offices. As a mortgage leader and industry advocate for more than 25 years, Bob understands the challenges facing clients in today’s regulatory environment. He has extensive experience in all facets of the lending industry, including auto finance, consumer and small dollar lending. As a CMB, Bob possesses training-level knowledge of the mortgage process, and has a deep understanding of changing mortgage regulations.

Scarlett Nokes draws upon her deep experience as a federal prosecutor to represent clients in a range of matters related to government investigations, white-collar criminal defense, regulatory and compliance issues, civil litigation and enforcement actions. Her clients benefit from her wealth of government experience, which allows her to skillfully advocate and achieve favorable results.

Bill Norton focuses his practice in the business bankruptcy area, dealing in all aspects of bankruptcy cases, creditor rights and insolvency. He first became familiar with the bankruptcy law from his Dad who was a noted scholar and Bankruptcy Judge in Atlanta, Georgia. Bill went to Vanderbilt Law School intending to practice in bankruptcy law and has done so since 1984. Over more than 30 years of practice of bankruptcy and insolvency law, Bill has represented just about every kind of client interest you can expect in bankruptcy cases. His main focus now is Chapter 11 business cases – representing debtors, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, committees and trustees.

Stephen Parsley practices in both the Litigation and Banking and Financial Services practice groups. In both groups, he assists clients with complex and dispositive motions, appeals, and general strategy.

Stephen has extensive experience on behalf of mortgage servicers and other financial institutions in forums across the country. He frequently represents mortgage servicers in cases claiming that a homeowners association’s foreclosure of its super-priority lien can extinguish senior mortgages. He has also handled litigation and provided compliance advice for reverse mortgage lenders in New York and Florida. View articles by Stephen

Since 2003, Jon Patterson has represented clients nationwide in a variety of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, industrial equipment, mobile technology and retail services. Jon is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer who helps clients protect their business interests in disputes related to contracts, torts, premises liability, auto accidents, trade secrets and non-competes.

Throughout his career, Jon has handled cases through all stages of the litigation process, including arbitration hearings, mediations, jury trials, bench trials and injunctive relief hearings. His trial practice has led him to courtrooms across the country, including Wisconsin, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Ben Perry’s practice spans the spectrum of legal services. On the litigation side, Ben represents clients at the trial and appellate level against a wide variety of claims in state and federal courts. His practice primarily concentrates on complex civil litigation, products liability defense, and representing financial institutions and mortgage companies in civil litigation. As part of the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group, he defends mortgage servicers, investors, and related entities against numerous state and federal law claims arising out of lending and loan servicing practices, including alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and various claims relating to the sale of bank-owned real estate. Ben also has substantial experience defending banks and investors in hundreds of cases related to homeowner’s association (HOA) superpriority liens, and he has represented a company’s founder and CEO facing claims brought by the SEC for alleged embezzlement of company funds.

Greg Pipes assists banks, mortgage originators and servers, and other financial service providers with examinations, investigations, and enforcement actions initiated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other federal and state regulators. His practice focuses on helping clients navigate all aspects of the regulatory examination and enforcement process. Greg also helps clients assess the impact of new rules and regulations and adapt to changes in the regulatory environment.

Grant Premo represents financial services institutions and other businesses across the country in a variety of commercial litigation and compliance matters. He has experience advising clients on lending, servicing and operations in the areas of student lending and residential and commercial mortgage lending, including helping develop best practices for telephone and text-message communications with consumers to comply with the Telephone Collection Practices Act (TCPA). Grant litigates matters involving state law tort and contract claims and claims of violations of federal and state laws, including the TCPA, Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA), the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), state unfair and deceptive trade practice statutes, government loan programs, and mortgage lending, servicing and securitization practices. Grant also assists financial services clients facing investigations and enforcement actions by an attorney general, the CFPB and other regulators.

Lauren Raines is a member of the Banking and Financial Services Practice Group and the Real Estate Practice Group. Lauren divides her time between transactional and litigation matters and regularly handles both commercial lending transactions and financial services litigation. This hybrid practice has allowed Lauren to better serve her transactional clients by advising them on the potential areas of conflict that could arise later in litigation, and to effectively advocate for her litigation clients due to her broad understanding of real estate principles.

Lauren has successfully handled countless contested commercial and consumer mortgage foreclosure trials for banks and mortgage servicers across the state of Florida. Lauren also has experience handling lender liability claims, usury actions, lien priority claims, fraudulent transfer claims, and violations of federal and Florida consumer protection statutes. Lauren also regularly represents merchant cash advance companies in enforcement actions, bankruptcy litigation and defending against usury, RICO, preference and lien avoidance claims.

Through his actions and collective experience, Haydn Richards has demonstrated that he is one of the foremost leaders in state financial services law and financial services licensing matters. Haydn is a nationally recognized leader on mortgage and financial services licensing matters, including counseling clients relating to the formation of financial services companies and strategic acquisitions. He regularly interacts on behalf of financial services companies with federal and state regulatory agencies, both in adversarial and non-adversarial matters. Haydn counsels clients on CFPB compliance,federal and state origination-related issues, as well as all aspects of the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing (SAFE) Act, financial services licensing matters and the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry (NMLS). He also supports companies relating to matters involving residential and commercial mortgage lenders, brokers, and servicers in both the forward mortgage and reverse mortgage industries; consumer finance companies; student loan companies; third-party loan fulfillment companies; and debt collectors.

Brad Robertson works with clients facing government investigations and litigations, dealing with whistleblower allegations and qui tam actions, and planning compliance programs to prevent these occurrences in the first place. He helps his clients navigate compliance and potential liability under the False Claims Act, Anti-Kickback Statute and FIRREA, in addition to other areas of healthcare fraud and abuse, financial/mortgage fraud, and white collar criminal law.

Ryan Robichaux specializes in political advocacy and compliance, where he represents clients before the executive and legislative branches of government in Washington, D.C., Montgomery, Alabama and other states. His work in these areas includes representation of businesses, trade associations, political action committees, nonprofits, government contractors, and other individuals and entities that are involved in the political process. Ryan regularly advises clients on state and federal lobbying, ethics, campaign finance, and pay-to-play laws. He also assists clients with the establishment and administration of political programs, including the formation of political action committees (PACs) and compliance with campaign finance laws, and advises clients on how to develop effective internal programs to comply with lobbying, ethics, campaign finance, and pay-to-play laws.  Ryan also has experience with general civil litigation before state and federal courts. View articles by Ryan

Hunter Robinson represents clients in commercial litigation and compliance matters across the country. His cannabis practice focuses on solving problems for cannabis companies and their vendors. Hunter has worked alongside other members of Bradley’s Cannabis Industry team to help hemp and medical cannabis companies obtain licenses, structure business entities, raise capital, negotiate contracts with suppliers and distributors, and maintain compliance with the ever-shifting state and federal laws that govern their operations. Hunter also advises financial institutions regarding the complex laws governing the provision of financial services to cannabis companies, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and related Anti-Money Laundering (AML) statutes and regulations.

Amy Magdanz Rose represents clients who are members of the financial services industry on state and federal compliance matters involving residential and commercial mortgage lenders, brokers, servicers, consumer financial companies, money transmitters, and debt collectors. She assists clients in achieving licensing goals and maintaining licensing status on the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). Amy is also familiar with the licensing protocols outside of the NMLS.

David Roth has a diverse practice that includes banking and financial services, as well as environmental and energy law. Since joining the firm almost 25 years ago, his practice and experiences have expanded to include a wide variety of corporate, litigation, financial services, and environmental matters. He has closed asset purchases, conducted corporate due diligence, and served as de facto general counsel for a manufacturing company. He has met with company presidents, maintenance supervisors, and CFOs to learn how they run their businesses. All of this has helped him better understand the full range of pressures businesses face and the importance of ensuring that legal solutions actually work on a practical level.

Jared Searls focuses his practice on assisting financial institution clients on a wide variety of litigation and regulatory compliance matters. Jared is a member of Bradley’s Financial Services Litigation team and is also a member of the Auto Finance and Payment Systems teams, with a particular emphasis on new-age technology and evolving forms of payments and client-consumer interaction. He advises financial clients on ever-changing financial regulations on both the state and federal level and provides defense when disputes or litigation actions are brought against lenders and other financial institutions.

Avery Simmons regularly represents financial services and mortgage company clients with compliance matters, including risk management and remediation, state investigations, regulatory compliance, and operational implementation of legal guidelines. She provides daily risk assessment guidance to financial institutions, including banks, mortgage companies and debt collectors, on litigation matters and regulatory-related issues in both mortgage origination and servicing, including TRID, GLBA, TILA, RESPA, HMDA, CFPB, applicable state laws, and federal agency regulations.

Ed Sledge is an experienced litigator and trial lawyer who has developed a diverse litigation practice. Ed has a wide range of trial experience in high-stakes, bet-the-company disputes for a variety of corporate clients and private equity groups nationwide.  Ed uses collaborative problem-solving to help clients achieve their objectives and is equally adept at representing plaintiffs or defendants in complex commercial disputes.  He regularly represents financial services clients in connection with finance-related litigation, including the defense of class actions, lender liability, securities, and RICO claims.  In addition to commercial disputes, Ed routinely litigates product liability matters, consumer finance disputes, intellectual property disputes, and insurance coverage matters, as well as personal injury and wrongful death matters. Ed and other members of Bradley serve as national trial counsel for a unit of a Fortune 50 corporation.

Scott Burnett Smith’s practice covers class actions, complex litigation, and appeals. Scott has been involved in dozens of nationwide class actions in state and federal courts and has handled over 30 class action appeals.

As co-chair of Bradley’s Cannabis Industry team, Whitt represents clients in a wide range of cannabis issues. In addition to providing a full suite of legal services to cannabis companies, Whitt and the Cannabis Industry team advise non-cannabis clients – from banks to commercial real estate companies to insurance companies and high net worth individuals – on best practices for interacting with cannabis companies.

Whitt is one of the leading voices in the cannabis bar – recognized as a “Go-To Thought Leader” by the National Law Review. He has presented on cannabis issues at conferences around the country.  His work has been featured in the National Law Journal, Law360, and the Westlaw Journal. And he has been quoted in an array of legal and mainstream publications from Law360 and Super Lawyers to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press.

David Stewart regularly represents clients before the executive and legislative branches in Washington, D.C., and Montgomery, Alabama, and also advises clients on federal and state campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws. He got his start in politics working in the United States Senate in Washington, D.C. before attending the University of Virginia Law School. After graduating from law school in 2000, David returned home to Birmingham to join Bradley’s Governmental Affairs Practice Group.

Erin Sullivan has years of experience representing corporate and individual clients involved in investigations, prosecutions, and civil enforcement actions by federal and state government entities. She routinely conducts internal investigations, whether prompted by an existing government investigation or initiated internally for business or compliance reasons.

Heather Wright helps financial institutions identify operational risks and determine business solutions to mitigate those risks. She provides regulatory and compliance advice and manages litigation for financial institutions regarding compliance with, and alleged violations of, security agreements and other contracts as well as lending and consumer finance statutes and regulations — particularly in matters involving property insurance and flood insurance.

Jay Wright is a partner in the firm’s Banking and Financial Services and Litigation practice groups. Jay has earned his Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP) designation through the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), and is one of a small number of lawyers who have achieved this status.

Jay’s practice focuses on financial services litigation and regulation, and he is actively involved in lawsuits and disputes across the country representing companies involved in a wide array of state and federal law claims. His representation includes general defense of various claims against financial institutions, mortgage companies, and other commercial entities. Many of these claims involve allegations of wrongful foreclosure proceedings or violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations, as well as various deceptive trade practices claims under state law.