Legal News

Ballard Spahr Grows in Washington With Focus on Financial Reform

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Ballard Spahr has expanded its consumer financial services group in a key market for the practice with the addition of a former Federal Trade Commission and bank attorney.

The firm added Mercedes Kelley Tunstall to its Washington, D.C., office where she helps clients comply with consumer financial services laws; proscriptions against unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices; and the dictates, investigations and proceedings of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was recently created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Ballard Spahr said in a statement that Tunstall?s arrival marks the beginning of expansion in the consumer financial services practice in the nation?s capital.

?Mercedes? arrival at Ballard Spahr just before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets going is particularly fortuitous for our banking clients,? Alan S. Kaplinsky, chairman of Ballard Spahr?s consumer financial services group, said in a statement. ?She has worked in house for major banks and has been on the cutting edge of e-commerce issues, including the use by banks of mobile phones and social networking sites to transact business. She also has experience investigating and litigating unfair and deceptive practice claims at the FTC, so she understands how to prevent and respond to government investigations.?

Tunstall joined Ballard Spahr from Ally Financial Inc., formerly GMAC, where she was lead counsel for global marketing and deposits. There, she was responsible for responding to state and federal regulator inquiries into consumer protection, privacy and disclosure issues, and ensuring that financial products and services were in compliance with state and federal law.

Prior to Ally Financial, Tunstall was assistant general counsel at Bank of America, where she managed all aspects of e-commerce, including online banking, mobile banking, social media and marketing. She also has served as senior counsel at HSBC North America Holdings Inc., where she managed an extensive litigation docket involving cases under the Truth in Lending Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and state consumer finance laws.

While a staff attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, Tunstall investigated and litigated the FTC?s first Internet hijacking scam case and was responsible for identifying and investigating a range of Internet fraud cases. As an associate at Kelley Drye Collier Shannon (now Kelley Drye & Warren) in Washington, she managed a number of FTC cases.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email).