Best Lawyers Near You in New York, New York for Financial Services Regulation Law
New York City is one of the most active and complex legal markets in the world. With a dense network of courts, regulations and high-stakes legal matters across every industry, navigating the legal system here requires more than just any attorney—it requires the right one.
Whether you're dealing with a corporate dispute, a criminal charge, or a personal legal issue, experience matters. So does reputation. That’s why this directory exists.
The Best Lawyers New York directory offers a streamlined, trustworthy way to start your search. Every attorney in New York listed has been recognized by their peers for professional excellence and the platform is designed to help you filter by legal need, review credentials and take the next step with confidence.
How the Directory Works
This page serves as a targeted directory for users looking to find a lawyer in New York. Each attorney listed has been recognized in the most recent edition of Best Lawyers—a distinction based entirely on peer nominations and evaluations.
You won’t find ads or sponsored listings here. Instead, you can search by:
- Practice area: filter by the type of legal help you need
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- Attorney name: if you’re looking to verify someone you’ve already heard of
Each attorney profile includes a clear summary of their experience, focus areas and credentials—giving you the information you need to make a confident decision.
Legal Help by Practice Area
New York City residents’ and visitors’ legal needs are wide-ranging and so are the attorneys listed in this directory. You can quickly narrow your search by legal focus. This directory includes attorneys who concentrate on some of the most in-demand areas of law in New York, such as:
- Business and commercial law
- Criminal defense and investigations
- Employment and labor disputes
- Real estate and construction law
- Divorce, custody and family matters
- Immigration issues
- Personal injury and malpractice
- Estate planning and probate
Why These Attorneys Are Listed
Every attorney on this page has earned a place through Best Lawyers’ rigorous annual peer-review process—one of the most trusted selection methods in the legal profession.
It’s recognition by fellow attorneys who know the work and understand what excellence looks like. Attorneys are nominated by peers and then evaluated on legal skill, professional conduct and client outcomes. Thousands of lawyers participate each year, providing confidential assessments within their specific practice areas.
To be listed, an attorney must:
- Be nominated by another legal professional
- Receive consistently high marks from peers in their practice area
- Maintain a strong track record of ethical behavior and client success
Only those who stand out among their peers are selected. And only those chosen in the most recent edition of the Best Lawyers awards appear in this directory, ensuring that every listing reflects current, active recognition.
Attorneys also manage their own profiles, so the information you’re reviewing is not only credible, but current. You’ll find clear details about each attorney’s practice focus, background and achievements—everything you need to make an informed decision.
This page is built to support your search—not get in the way of it. Whether you're starting from scratch or narrowing down a list of top attorneys in New York, this directory is a practical, no-frills tool to help you move forward.
Start Your Search
If you're trying to find a lawyer in New York, this directory offers a trusted, peer-reviewed way to start. Whether you're hiring for the first time or looking to verify someone's standing, the attorneys listed here have been selected for a reason.
Begin your search by selecting your legal focus. Then explore profiles, compare qualifications and connect with an attorney in New York who’s already earned the trust of the legal community.
Practice Area Overview
Financial regulatory practices vary from firm to firm. Some law firms are limited to providing financial regulatory advice to a particular type of financial institution, such as a bank or insurance company. Others focus on bank mergers and acquisitions. Only a few have a full-scope practice consisting of financial regulatory and legislative advice; mergers and acquisitions when the target is a financial institution; capital markets transactions when the issuer is a financial institution; enforcement and other litigation when the defendant is a financial institution; and insolvency and restructuring when the insolvent party is a financial institution.
Financial regulatory and legislative advice consists of advising financial institutions on regulatory limitations and requirements related to their operations and strategy, including chartering and licensing, capital or liquidity requirements, restrictions on investments or activities, financial reporting, business conduct requirements, investor protection, consumer protection, transactions with affiliates, privacy, trading, hedging, and reporting financial crimes by customers or counterparties. It includes difficult statutory or regulatory interpretation where gaps or ambiguities in the law exist, commenting on proposed legislation or regulation, seeking clarification or regulatory changes, and advocating positions before regulatory agencies.
Mergers and acquisitions transactions consist of structuring and executing the purchase or sale of a financial institution, including obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals.
Capital markets transactions consist of structuring and executing the offer and sale of debt, equity, or hybrid securities, including compliance with any special disclosure requirements for financial institutions.
Enforcement and other litigation involve defending against an enforcement action by financial regulators, white-collar criminal defense, or otherwise defending financial institutions in litigation.
Insolvency and restructuring involves advising a financial institution, its creditors or a potential purchaser when the financial institution is in a troubled or failed condition and a regulatory agency is in charge of its reorganization or liquidation.
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Barbara Mendelson is a partner in the Financial Services Group in the New York office. Her practice involves advising foreign and U.S. banks in a variety of complex regulatory matters, including sales and acquisitions of U.S. banking and nonbanking firms, Dodd-Frank Act issues, applications to federal and state bank regulators for expansion of activities and new products, Bank Secrecy Act and OFAC matters and over-the-counter and exchange-based trading of various instruments and derivatives. ...
Grace Aviles is of counsel in the Corporate practice at Paul Hastings, based in the New York office. Ms. Aviles focuses her finance practice representing private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers, and financial institutions in secured and unsecured loan and capital market transactions for both U.S. and internationally based businesses. She has extensive experience representing clients in diverse financing structures, including acquisition financings/ leveraged buyouts, working capital fina...
Bianca Lewis is an associate in the Health Care group. She represents clients with respect to a variety of corporate transactions, primarily within the health care and life sciences industry. As a former in-house counsel for a large international bank, Bianca has provided general corporate and regulatory advice, assisted in various banking transactions, and acquired experience providing solutions for complex legal issues within the banking and finance industry. What do you focus on? I assist ...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.