Two more Hudson Cook partners are receiving accolades for their depth of knowledge and performance within consumer finance law.

Hudson Cook partners Lucy Morris and Ryan Stinneford have been elected as Fellows of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers (ACCFSL). Membership in the ACCFSL is limited to those attorneys who have achieved preeminence and made repeated and substantial contributions to the promotion of learning and scholarship in the field of consumer financial services law through teaching, lecturing and published writings.

A partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office and chair of Hudson Cook’s Government Investigations, Examinations and Enforcement Practice Group, Morris counsels financial institutions and others in complying with federal consumer financial laws and prohibitions against unfair, deceptive or abusive trade practices. She is an experienced advocate and litigator, representing clients in government investigations, examinations and enforcement actions before federal and state agencies; in particular, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Department of Justice and state Attorney General offices.

 Before joining Hudson Cook, Morris served as a founding member of the CFPB Implementation Team that organized the CFPB after passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, and served as a CFPB deputy enforcement director for four years. Before the CFPB, she worked at the FTC for more than 20 years in a variety of leadership positions, including as assistant director for financial practices. She received the 2008 Chairman’s Award, the FTC’s highest honor.

 Morris is a frequent speaker on a variety of consumer financial services law topics. Speaking engagements include the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), American Bar Association (ABA), Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) and numerous other national programs.

Stinneford — a partner in the firm’s Portland, Maine, office — assists clients with a wide variety of federal, Maine and Massachusetts regulatory compliance matters. His retail financial compliance experience includes prepaid access, consumer and commercial deposit products, electronic banking and payment services, consumer finance products (residential mortgages, home equity loans/lines, personal loans/lines, credit cards, student loans, auto loans and leases, and retail installment sales contracts), marketing and advertising issues, privacy and data security issues and vendor contracting/third-party risk management issues. His representative clients include community, regional and national banks, as well as non-bank lenders and service providers.

For the eighth consecutive year, Stinneford is listed in the 2018 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the practice areas of banking and finance law and of financial services regulation law. He was named the Best Lawyers Banking and Finance Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Portland, Maine, for 2018 as well as in 2015.

Stinneford is a member of the Consumer Financial Services Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, and served as chair of the committee’s Deposit Products and Payment Systems subcommittee from 2008 to 2011and vice chair from 2005 to 2008. He is also a member and former chair of the Consumer and Financial Institutions Law Section of the Maine State Bar Association. 

Like Morris, Stinneford is also a frequent speaker on a wide variety of consumer financial services topics, as well as legal ethics matters.  He has also authored or co-authored nine annual surveys of deposit and payment systems developments published by the American Bar Association in The Business Lawyer.

Morris and Stinneford join 12 other attorneys from the firm who have been previously named as Fellows, including:

—Michael Benoit of Washington, D.C.

—Thomas Buiteweg of Ann Arbor, Mich.

—Robert Cook of Hanover, Md., a founding member and current past president

—Patricia Covington of Richmond, Va.

—Anne Fortney of Washington, DC, a founding member and Lifetime Achievement Award winner

—Richard Hackett of Portland, Maine, a former regent and chair of the 2017 Annual Writing Competition

—Thomas Hudson of Hanover, Md., past president; ex officio Regent; and Lifetime Achievement Award winner

—Joseph “Jed” Mayk of West Chester, Pa.

—Nicole Frush Munro of Hanover, Md.

—Jean Noonan of Washington, D.C., a founding member; secretary; former Regent; former chair, Lifetime Achievement Award Committee and Writing Competition Committee

—Joel Winston of Washington, D.C. and part of the Board of Regents

—Elizabeth Yen of New Haven, Conn., and chair of the 2018 Annual Writing Competition

Induction of new fellows will take place at the ACCFSL’s Annual Dinner on April 14 in conjunction with the American Bar Association Business Law Section Spring Meeting in Orlando. The annual dinner is the ACCFSL’s premier event of the year.