Cadwalader Expands Corporate Practice with Addition of Market-Leading Financial Services and FinTech Partner Vivian Maese

NEW YORK, Jan. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP today announced that partner Vivian Maese, widely regarded as one of the leading transactional and regulatory lawyers in the FinTech industry, has joined the firm's Corporate practice in New York.

Maese's practice focuses on complex strategic and corporate technology transactions in the financial services industry, with a focus on technology, data regulation and compliance. She advises clients, ranging from bulge-bracket financial institutions to emerging companies, on matters at the intersection of financial services regulation, trading and markets, and technology and intellectual property-based transactions, as well as new technology innovations in financial services, such as blockchain, crypto assets and machine learning.

Maese joins Cadwalader from Latham & Watkins, where she was a partner and co-chair of the firm's Financial Institutions Industry Group and FinTech Industry Group.

"Vivian is a perfect fit for our firm," said Cadwalader managing partner Pat Quinn. "Vivian has few peers when it comes to her work in the FinTech space, and our firm practices at the forefront of innovation in financial services. Our financial services clients continue to seek the kind of guidance on their deals and regulatory responsibilities that only a lawyer like Vivian and a firm like Cadwalader can provide."

William Mills, co-leader of Cadwalader's Corporate Group, said, "Transactions in the financial services industry today are often driven by FinTech and reengineering and reinventing core processes to become faster and more efficient and more data driven. Vivian's large financial institution clients are part of Cadwalader's natural client base, and her focus on representing emerging companies in the FinTech space is the right complement for our growing corporate M&A practice. Vivian knows the challenges our clients face and is one of the most active and experienced lawyers advising in the FinTech industry today."

Maese is top-rated in all the major directories and was recently named Band 1, the highest ranking possible, in Chambers & Partners' annual Professional Advisors FinTech ranking for 2019, and was highlighted in the National Law Journal as a "FinTech, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Trailblazer."

Prior to entering private practice, Maese was the general counsel and corporate secretary at BIDS Trading, a financial services industry consortium for equities trading. Prior to BIDS, Maese provided oversight on all legal issues related to US cash trading and market data for the New York Stock Exchange. She also spent more than 20 years as an in-house managing director and divisional general counsel for Salomon Brothers and Citigroup, where she was the lead lawyer on many transactions and technology initiatives, including the Fulcrum Project, which transformed electronic trading on Wall Street.

Maese has been recognized repeatedly for her FinTech accomplishments. Recently, she was nominated by her clients and received the Markets Media Women in Finance Award and was named to the Women in Fintech Powerlist. In addition, Maese was named a Top 10 Innovative Individual in the Financial Times North America Innovative Lawyers 2016 report. 

"Cadwalader has a best-in-class reputation within the financial services community for its regulatory, compliance and transactional capabilities," Maese said. "I know the firm and its partners very well, and I look forward to expanding the firm's ability to advise financial services clients at a time when there is so much change under way in the industry."

Throughout her career Maese has been very active in the community. She was recently named Humanitarian of the Year by the Hope for a Healthier Humanity (HHH) Foundation, which provides resources to cultivate better health care infrastructures, offer education services, and donate medical supplies to people in underdeveloped nations.

Maese's arrival is the latest in a series of important lateral partner and senior lawyer additions at Cadwalader in 2018. In London, partner Samantha Hutchinson joined the firm, expanding the firm's transatlantic fund finance offering, along with M&A lawyer Joanne Valentine and disputes lawyer Melis Acunis. In the U.S., 2018 additions to the firm include finance partner Pearl Yuan-Garg, leading antitrust partner Joel Mitnick, M&A partner Stephen Fraidin, financial regulatory partner Mark Chorazak and litigation partner Jonathan Watkins. In addition, M&A partner Chris Cox returned to the firm after several years in a senior corporate role and real estate partner Alan Lawrence rejoined Cadwalader from another major firm.  

About Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, established in 1792, serves a diverse client base, including many of the world's leading financial institutions and corporations in more than 50 countries. With offices in New York, London, Charlotte, Washington, and Brussels, Cadwalader offers legal expertise in antitrust, banking, corporate finance, corporate governance, environmental, executive compensation, financial restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, private wealth, real estate, regulation, securitization, structured finance, tax and white-collar defense. For more information, visit www.cadwalader.com.

Contacts:
Ron Brandsdorfer +1 212 504 6712
[email protected]

SOURCE Cadwalader