Barbara R. Mendelson joined the New York office of Morrison & Foerster as a partner in 1995 and has been the head of the firm’s Financial Services Practice Group since September 2002. She received her B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1976, and her J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. Ms. Mendelson has practiced in the banking area since 1981, starting her career as an attorney at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Ms. Mendelson’s bank regulatory 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, 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. She has represented foreign banks in their U.S. operations for more than 20 years. Ms. Mendelson has also been instrumental in forming a number of commercial bank subsidiaries of foreign bank holding companies. In addition to her bank regulatory practice, Ms. Mendelson works with sovereign entities and multilateral organizations with respect to the investment of their foreign currency assets and has been invited to speak at a number of conferences for central bank counsel and asset managers.

Ms. Mendelson was named by Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers in New York as a top attorney in Banking Law 2006-2009 and was recognized as a recommended banking lawyer in the International Financial Law Review 1000. She is admitted to practice in New York and is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the New York County Lawyers Association, Banking Law Committee.