Bio

Richard Willis is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Financial Services Group who focuses on the general representation of both public and privately held entities within the payments industry. Richard concentrates his practice on mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances and has particular experience with cross-border transactions. As part of serving payments industry clients, he routinely advises on regulatory and compliance matters, as well as new market entry, across the globe. Richard has extensive experience with complex, international acquisition and long-term joint venture transactions. Further, he has nearly 20 years’ experience in counseling and serving as lead counsel to payments industry participants, including global financial institutions, merchant acquirers, card issuers, card schemes/associations, ISOs and MSPs, and B2B payment companies. Richard has served as lead counsel in scores of acquisitions and joint ventures/strategic alliances throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia (including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom).