BOSTON, April 29, 2010 – The American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers recently honored Goodwin Procter partner Lynne B. Barr with its Senator William Proxmire Lifetime Achievement Award at the College’s annual dinner. The College is an invitation-only group of prominent consumer financial services lawyers, of which Barr is a fellow and past president.
Barr serves as chair of Goodwin Procter’s Consumer Financial Services practice. She represents banks, bank holding companies, brokerage concerns, mortgage companies, trade associations and other entities on general corporate matters, including the operation and offering of their products and services, particularly in the context of federal and state regulation of financial institutions and their activities. Barr is the Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section and a recipient of its prestigious Jean Allard Glass Cutter Award in 2005.
The Senator William Proxmire Lifetime Achievement Award is granted periodically by the College to a person who has made significant contributions in the field of consumer financial services over that person’s career. William Proxmire was a U.S. Senator who served as Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Among his many accomplishments, he was the chief sponsor and was largely responsible for the Consumer Credit Protection Act, major legislation that created a national framework for bringing fairness to consumers entering into credit transactions.
Barr embarked on her career in consumer financial services law when she joined the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board in 1976 as a staff attorney (and later a Senior Attorney) in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs. In 1986, she joined Goodwin Procter, where she counsels clients on fair lending, electronic commerce, information management, retail deposit-taking and lending activities, mortgage finance, insurance, credit and debit card operations, and payments systems. Barr recently completed a term as Editor-in-Chief of The Business Lawyer, the Section’s scholarly journal, and is the former chair of the ABA’s Consumer Financial Services Committee.
The award includes a donation to an organization of Barr’s choice, which Goodwin Procter will match. Barr selected one of the firm’s pro bono clients, D2D Fund, a social entrepreneur fund focused on helping lower-income consumers save and become more financially independent. D2D Fund recently launched a financial literacy video game, and Barr has worked with the organization on a project to offer prize-linked savings, where depositors are entered into a raffle each time they make a deposit into a savings account.
About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation’s leading law firms with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, products liability and mass torts. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com.