Thomas Brooks Bio

Thomas Brooks is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Lewis Brisbois and chair of the Bank Default Response Team, as well as a member of the Banking & Finance, Corporate, Commercial Lending, Cannabis, Hemp & Regulated Substances, and the Securities and Corporate Finance Practices. With more than 30 years of financial services regulatory practice, Tommy Brooks has represented a variety of commercial banks, thrift institutions, online lenders, fintech entities, money services businesses, consumer finance lenders and financial services trade associations. He has led a bank board’s internal investigation that led to the arrest and conviction for fraud of its president and chief lending officer. On behalf of a California financial trade association, he successfully advocated for owners of FDIC insured industrial banks to be exempt from Federal Reserve Board regulation. In recent years, Tommy Brooks has increasingly focused on providing guidance and advice to clients in the rapidly changing financial institution regulatory environment. He has advised state banking associations on the proper use of the federal regulators’ cybersecurity assessment tool, and has represented a financial services trade association in developing and obtaining approval by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners of the Viatical Settlements Model Act. Other emerging areas in which he has been active include cannabis financing and consumer financial services regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and, increasingly, state consumer regulatory counterparts. Tommy’s knowledge and insight of financial services law and regulation was initially formed while serving as General Counsel of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and prior to that as General Counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban affairs, the committee responsible for all federal banking, securities and consumer finance laws. The newly created CFPB has added a new level of regulatory scrutiny to financial services entities, imposing stringent new requirements and enforcement proceedings. Banking is a highly regulated industry, and it is experiencing a time of disruption due to the advent of non-depository online lenders that use technology to provide new financial products and services to consumers and businesses. Some fintech entities partner with banks, some are acquiring banks, and some are converting operations to become insured banks. Tommy has the knowledge and experience to effectively guide clients in this fast changing environment.