Former CFPB Counsel Joins Davis Wright

JULY 11, 2016 – Joseph R. Rodriguez, a rising star recognized by Legal 500 US (2015) in the area of Financial Services: Litigation, has joined the Consumer Financial Services practice of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP as a partner resident in the Washington, D.C., office.
 
Mr. Rodriguez has served as Southeast Regional Counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In that role, Mr. Rodriguez was extensively involved in the supervisory and enforcement matters that originated in the CFPB’s Southeast Region, and evaluated numerous institutions’ compliance with federal consumer financial law. He was one of the founding members of the CFPB’s Office of Fair Lending and played an important role in building the new agency's supervision and enforcement capabilities, advising on many examinations and investigations, as well as critical internal rules of operation, including the CFPB's procedure for determining whether a violation found during the course of an examination is resolved through confidential supervision or through public enforcement.
 
More recently, Mr. Rodriguez was Of Counsel at Morrison & Foerster, where he handled matters involving the CFPB, the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, federal prudential bank regulators, and state attorneys general. These matters spanned the range of consumer financial products and services, including mortgage, automobile, credit card, student, short-term/small-dollar, and small business lending, and involved an array of federal and state consumer financial laws and regulations, including the ECOA, UDAAP, TILA, RESPA, EFTA, FCRA, and FDCPA, among others.  Mr. Rodriguez has extensive experience in the statistical review and analysis of lending data and on numerous occasions has used his expertise to successfully resolve clients’ matters through confidential supervision, avoiding the negative monetary and reputational impact of public enforcement.  Moreover, when clients have faced enforcement, Mr. Rodriguez has used his rare combination of technical regulatory skill, first chair trial experience, and inside CFPB insight to obtain highly favorable outcomes for his clients. 
 
“Joe’s direct insight into the workings of the CFPB, his fair lending and enforcement expertise, and his experience serving clients from some of the country’s top-tier consumer financial services platforms, will make him an extremely valuable asset to our clients as they manage this industry’s continued technological transformation and intense regulatory oversight,” said Claude Goetz, chair of the Consumer Financial Services practice at Davis Wright Tremaine. 
 
“Davis Wright’s national Consumer Financial Services team is well known for its first-class representation of some of the most dynamic, innovative players in the industry,” said Mr. Rodriguez. “I look forward to complementing the firm’s strong regulatory and transactional work, as well as its leading position in emerging and mobile payments, with my fair lending, supervisory, and enforcement expertise.”
 
Mr. Rodriguez holds a B.S. in Accounting (2001) from the College of New Jersey and a J.D. (2005) from Harvard Law School.
 
 
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with nine offices and over 550 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. For more information, visit www.dwt.com or www.paymentlawadvisor.com.