F. John Podvin Jr.

John Podvin Jr. is a partner in the firm with more than 25 years of regulatory agency, law firm, and corporate experience. He is based in Dallas, Texas, where he works nationally with the firm’s clients.

His practice areas include banking and financial services, litigation, corporate governance, finance, financial crisis advisory and litigation, financial regulatory, government relations strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. As outside counsel, Mr. Podvin works closely with the firm’s banking clients in combating money laundering and developing new products and services, including electronic banking and internet services.

Mr. Podvin advises corporate boards, board committees, and management teams on federal and state banking laws. He has served his clients as a primary liaison to federal bank regulators. Mr. Podvin is part of the firm’s nationally recognized team of banking and financial institutions lawyers who provide comprehensive legal services to financial institutions. A frequent speaker and author, Mr. Podvin has advised his clients on the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and was invited to testify before the Texas House of Representatives Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee and the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee regarding the Act’s implementation.

Prior to private practice, Mr. Podvin was in-house with an NYSE-listed parent company to a $16B bank. There, he advised the board and management on legal compliance issues, anti-money laundering, fair lending practices, affiliate transactions, ethics, privacy, insider lending, and legal lending limits. Serving as Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Mr. Podvin was responsible for the development of enterprise-wide policies. He supervised and managed investigations triggered by consumer complaints and calls to the ethics hotline as required by Sarbanes-Oxley. He also served as a member of the company’s disclosure committee.

Mr. Podvin was elected Chair of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for a one year term that ended in June 2016. 

He was also elected Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the North Texas Chapter of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), effective February, 2018. ACAMS is the largest international membership organization dedicated to enhancing the knowledge, skills and expertise of AML/CTF and financial crime detection and prevention professionals.

He has been named to the annual list of The Best Lawyers in America© every year since 2014 and Best Lawyers® recognized Mr. Podvin as a “Lawyer of the Year” for his practice in Financial Services Regulation Law in Dallas, Texas for both 2014 and 2019. Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey and is regarded as a definitive guide to legal excellence.

Mr. Podvin has an AV^® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell®, the highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards.

He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and has a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.

Speeches and Publications

• Panelist, “Culture of Compliance and Individual Liability – Discussion topics range from compliance officer’s liability to providing the information and metrics your senior management needs to ensure risks are managed effectively plus the role of the Board of Directors in Program approval,” 16th Annual Puerto Rican Symposium of Anti-Money Laundering, February 21, 2019
• Moderator, “Banking Cannabis after rescinding the Cole Memo.  What are the leading practices institutions are using to evaluate the risk?” 16th Annual Puerto Rican Symposium of Anti-Money Laundering, February 21, 2019
• “An Update on the Treatment of Marijuana Related Businesses, including Industrial Hemp under the Farm Bill,” Presenter, Independent Bankers of Colorado (IBC) Convention and Trade Show, Vail, Colorado, September, 2018
• Panelist, “Let’s Make a Deal!  M&A Compliance,” American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, Nashville, TN, June 25-26, 2018
• Quoted in “BSA, AML, and Your Credit Union: The New Perils,” by Robert McGarvey, August 27, 2018
• Quoted in “Before Amazon checks out banking, a reality check,” by Patrick Sanders in BAI (Bank Administration Institute), April 4, 2018
• “Observations on Examinations, Supervision and Enforcement,” Co-Presenter, Independent Bankers of Colorado (IBC) Convention and Trade Show, Vail, Colorado, September, 2017
• AML/BSA Mile High Summit, Co-Host, and Presenter “Individual Liability: A Brave New World”, Denver, CO, August 2016
• “Financial Industry Collaboration with Law Enforcement”, Homeland Security Investigations – Cornerstone Outreach, Hurst, TX, May 2016
• “Managing Personal & Corporate Liability”, Moderator, 2016 Puerto Rican Symposium of Anti-Money Laundering, San Juan, PR, February 2016
• “FinCEN Developments,” National Armored Car Association Conference, Aurora, CO, October 2015
• “Good Bank Governance,” panelist, Independent Bankers of Colorado Annual Convention, Vail, CO, September 2015
• “E-SIGN Compliance Throughout the Account Life Cycle,” Panelist, American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, Washington, DC, June 2015
• “Super-sizing AML Efforts at Small and Mid-sized Institutions,” Moderator, ACAMS money-laundering.com 20th Annual International AML & Financial Crime Conference, Hollywood, Florida, March 2015
• “Responding to a Data Breach,” panelist, American Bankers Association Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas, October 2014
• “Social Media Guidance to Financial Institutions,” co-author, Social Media for Financial Services, Sprinklr, June 30, 2014
• “Identifying Common Themes in Recent Enforcement Actions,” moderator, 19th Annual International AML & Financial Crime Conference, Hollywood, Florida, March 2014
• “Critical Compliance Risks Your Bank Faces” and ” Working with Your Regulators,” presenter, Southwestern Graduate School of Banking 137th Assembly for Bank Directors, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 2013
• “Responding to Exam Findings,” panelist, American Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference, Chicago, Illinois, June 2013