Christopher Witeck
Partner
Washington, D.C.
Chris Witeck leads Orrick’s global Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE) Business Unit – a team of 270 lawyers focused on delivering forward-looking, synthesized regulatory and commercial solutions. SAGE delivers sector-focused advice, integrating perspectives from Orrick’s practices in financial & fintech regulation, enforcement and transactions; white collar; privacy & cybersecurity; competition; public policy, trade and technology transactions.
Chris has an active practice representing financial services entities in negotiating a wide variety of corporate transactions, including company M&A, asset purchases and critical vendor and other third-party relationships. His clients include banks, mortgage companies and servicers, marketplace and other lenders, fintech and emerging payments providers and other business entities in the financial services industry.
Chris’ M&A work emphasizes transactions that involve regulatory risks and concerns or novel structures at the forefront of industry trends. He also represents buyers and sellers of mortgage loans and other consumer lending assets, including interests such as mortgage servicing rights. He regularly negotiates many varieties of servicing and subservicing contracts.
He also advises clients on outsourcing, joint venture and bank partner agreements, particularly in the fintech and e-commerce arena, providing years of experience addressing “true lender” issues. He also advises clients on loan repurchase and indemnity matters as well as corporate governance and compliance matters.
His regulatory practice focuses on advising lenders and servicers on matters involving the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), including affiliated business arrangements, portfolio retention transactions and vendor management issues.
Chris is recognized by Chambers USA for Fintech: Payments & Lending, which cited his capabilities “advising on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts matters and transactional work, with notable expertise handling M&A in the financial services sector.”
He was previously Co-Managing Partner and a member of the partner board at Buckley LLP. Before attending law school, he worked at the U.S. Department of State.
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Representative transactions include assisting:
- A federal savings bank in the sale of a default mortgage servicing platform and a related agreement for the purchaser to subservice the bank’s defaulted loans
- Buyers and sellers of mortgage (both originators and servicers) and other financial services and fintech companies in stock and asset acquisitions, including fintech companies in the payments and regulatory compliance businesses
- A well-funded joint venture to structure and launch a mobile wallet and related e-commerce initiatives
- A mortgage servicer in a private-label component subservicing agreement to address a regulatory prohibition on default servicing, including related regulatory and corporate diligence
- A major Wall Street wealth management concern in a private-label mortgage origination and servicing transaction
- Buyers and sellers of mortgage loans and servicing rights, including through correspondent and other channels, with aggregate principal balances in the hundreds of billions of dollars
- Lenders in the formation of joint ventures with title insurers, real estate agents, and home builders