Ms Molly Swartz > Paul Hastings LLP > San Francisco, United States > Lawyer Profile
Paul Hastings LLP Offices

55 SECOND STREET, 24TH FLOOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105
CALIFORNIA
United States
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Ms Molly Swartz

Work Department
Partner, Fintech and Payments
Position
Molly Swartz is a partner in the Global Fintech & Payments practice at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s San Francisco office.
Recognized as a “Rising Star” by Law360 in 2023 and a “Next Generation Partner” by The Legal 500 in 2023, Ms. Swartz advises Fintech and financial services companies, internet marketplaces, and commercial and consumer lenders regarding a broad spectrum of product, regulatory, and transactional matters. As part of Paul Hastings’ Band 1-ranked Fintech and Payments practice, she is one of a few preeminent financial services attorneys in the US that companies turn to as they seek to commercialize their product offerings further.
Ms. Swartz has extensive experience with financial services and consumer protection laws, including the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, state money transmission and licensed lending laws, gift card laws, payment network rules such as the Nacha, Visa and Mastercard Rules, and other state and federal statutes related to money movement.
Ms. Swartz advises household name companies regarding a host of product and regulatory issues. From ideation and strategy through launch and beyond, Ms. Swartz assists in all aspects of product development. She frequently negotiates commercial agreements in the financial services space, including bank-Fintech partnership agreements and commercial agreements between Fintech companies. Ms. Swartz drafts user-facing documentation for financial services clients including foundational contracts between clients and their customers, and advises on design elements of the user experience. Beyond product development, Ms. Swartz supports clients through financing services licensing, and registration, and assists clients in responding to regulatory inquiries.
Ms. Swartz is one of the foremost experts in non-recourse liquidity and earned wage access (collectively, “NRL/EWA”). She was part of the original legal team that helped define the space, and has engaged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and numerous state agencies on a variety of EWA/NRL issues. Ms. Swartz has helped numerous clients to develop no-fee, non-recourse forms of financing.
Education
University of Pennsylvania Law School, J.D. 2011
Yale University, B.A. 2006
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Finance > Fintech
(Next Generation Partners)Paul Hastings LLP is particularly adept at handling the myriad of regulatory, transactional, and corporate issues within the payments sector, as well as all stages of digital asset companies’ lifecycles, with extensive experience engaging with regulatory bodies such as the SEC. In Atlanta, Chris Daniel is an expert in payments and cryptocurrency, working on complex multijurisdictional mandates. Operating out of San Francisco, Eric Sibbitt is a key port of call for complex regulatory matters presented by financial technology and is a leader in the application of federal securities law, while Molly Swartz focuses on helping clients commercialize their product offerings, with particular expertise in earned wage access alternative financing and consumer protection laws. In New York, Dana Syracuse specializes in helping clients secure special-purpose bank and trust charters, while Josh Boehm advises financial institutions engaged in digital asset activities, focusing on obtaining regulatory approvals and guiding clients on deploying digital asset products in compliance with financial regulations.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Finance > Commercial lending: Advice to bank lenders
- Finance > Fintech
- Labor and employment > Labor and employment disputes (including collective actions)
- International trade and national security > CFIUS
- Environment > Environment: regulatory
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Media, technology and telecoms > Media and entertainment: transactional
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Real estate > Real estate
Firm Rankings
- Finance > Capital markets: global offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Commercial lending > Advice to direct lenders/private credit
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- Tax > International tax
- Real estate > Land use/zoning
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Shareholder activism
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
- Media, technology and telecoms > Telecoms and broadcast: regulatory
- Intellectual property > Trade secrets (litigation and non-contentious matters)
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Labor and employment > Workplace and employment counseling
- Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Dispute resolution > Financial services litigation
- Healthcare > Life sciences
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- Media, technology and telecoms > Media and entertainment: litigation
- Investment fund formation and management > Mutual/registered/exchange-traded funds
- Investment fund formation and management > Private equity funds (including venture capital)
- Real estate > Real estate finance
- Real estate > Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Energy > Renewable/alternative power
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- International trade and national security > CFIUS
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- Environment > Environment: regulatory
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Intellectual property > Patents: prosecution (including re-examination and post-grant proceedings)
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
- Finance > Project finance
- Finance > Commercial lending
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- Insurance > Insurance: non-contentious
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (International Trade Commission)