McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Teresa Kosmidis focuses her practice on consumer protection and consumer financial services regulation, compliance, enforcement, and litigation. She advises financial institutions, payments companies, FinTech companies, and other consumer-facing businesses on complex regulatory and enforcement matters at the federal and state levels, including companies that market to consumers, handle payments or billing, or face scrutiny from federal and state regulators.

Teresa brings a rare end-to-end regulatory perspective shaped by her significant experience at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she worked across rulemaking, supervision, enforcement, and litigation. Having operated inside two of the US government’s most powerful consumer financial regulators, Teresa understands not only what the law requires, but how regulators think, prioritize, examine, investigate, and enforce across a wide range of consumer-facing business models.

Teresa also advises clients on regulatory, compliance, and enforcement issues related to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, including consumer-facing crypto products, payments, and emerging blockchain-based business models.

At the CFPB, Teresa served in senior roles in the Offices of Regulations, Enforcement, and Supervision. She helped formulate and draft federal consumer financial regulations, advised senior leadership on regulatory strategy, and served as a subject matter expert on key statutes and rules, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act of 1978 and Regulation E, and the Truth in Lending Act of 1968 and Regulation Z. She regularly advised examination teams, led and supported challenging supervisory exams, and addressed novel regulatory issues in coordination with enforcement senior staff.

While at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Teresa represented the agency in federal court litigation and investigations involving nonbank financial institutions, including retail and other consumer-facing companies. Her matters included enforcement actions and investigations involving auto finance, payday lending, deceptive marketing and billing practices, and emerging technologies, including Bitcoin-related products. She conducted depositions, managed investigations, and coordinated closely with economists and state regulators.

She also advises clients in connection with transactions, including regulatory due diligence, identifying consumer protection risks, and structuring post-close remediation efforts.

Earlier in her career, Teresa practiced complex commercial litigation at a New York law firm and clerked for the Honorable E. Thomas Boyle of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Adam J. Barazani advises fintech companies and private equity firms in complex transactions, regulatory compliance, and enforcement matters across the payments industry. He has advised on matters involving e-commerce platforms, cross-border and domestic money transmitters, B2B and commercial payments providers, rewards and prepaid card programs, payroll solutions, digital wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges, and emerging payments companies.

Adam guides clients on state-by-state licensing and regulatory frameworks, product development and structuring, and ongoing compliance obligations. In that capacity, he advises on money transmission licensure, multistate reporting, financial regulatory requirements, commercial lending and merchant cash advance regulation, and the rollout of new payments and lending products.

He has significant experience with acquisitions, investments, and internal restructurings involving payments companies, including matters requiring complex and creative structuring to address state change-in-control filing requirements and investor ownership thresholds. In this role, Adam conducts regulatory diligence and helps lead change-in-control processes on a nationwide basis in connection with high-value M&A and strategic investments in the fintech and payments sectors.