EMERGING ISSUES TRACK: The Risk Behind the Race – Employee Mobility, Data, and Licensing

Managing Director, Conforma Compliance Group LLC

Alfred Pitzner is a co-founder of Conforma Compliance Group, a practice providing regulatory management services to mortgage lenders. He leads the risk assessment, compliance strategy, CMS/CMP creation and cross-functional implementation for our clients. Having begun his career as an MLO, before moving to lead the compliance and litigation management function at one of the most established mortgage lenders and servicers in the Midwest, Pitzner has a deep understanding of business units, their concerns, and their needs. He built a compliance management system and program from the ground up at a time when the term CMS was new. Pitzner managed over 200 examinations conducted by HUD, VA, FNMA, FHLMC, GNMA, OIG and various state banking departments from California to New York. He participated in over 100 mediations and settlement conferences, bringing the vast majority to successful resolutions. Pitzner also argued positions with the DOJ, HUD, GNMA, FNMA and FHMLC as well as in state and federal court. He brings a solid understanding of compliance related risk and a deep expertise in creating effective compliance solutions that create business value.

Partner, Alston & Bird, LLP

Kelley Barnaby, a Partner at Alston & Bird, co-leads the firm’s Financial Services and Investment Funds Litigation Team. She focuses her practice on consumer protection and unfair competition matters, advising clients in both private litigation and government investigations involving antitrust, data privacy, the False Claims Act, and CFPB enforcement. She represents clients across a range of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, and FDA-regulated entities. Barnaby has extensive experience in litigating in state and federal courts, in arbitration, and before state regulators, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. Her trial experience includes preparing witnesses for depositions and trials, taking and defending depositions, and arguing motions. She also manages all phases of e-discovery, from collection through production. Barnaby received the 2015 Burton Award for Legal Achievement for co-authoring Cybersecurity: What Directors Need to Know in an Era of Increased Scrutiny. She clerked for the Honorable John G. Heyburn II of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. She is consistently recognized as a Washington, D.C., Super Lawyers Rising Star in business litigation and was named to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under” list in 2022.

Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Lisa M. Lanham is a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, where she advises clients across the financial services industry on a broad range of federal and state regulatory, licensing, compliance, and transactional matters. Nationally recognized by Legal 500 for Financial Services Regulatory and Fintech, Lanham is known for helping clients navigate complex regulatory frameworks with practical, business-focused guidance that supports growth, innovation, and market expansion. Her practice spans both primary and secondary markets, enabling her to counsel clients on licensing, compliance, and capital markets transactions across a variety of sectors. She represents a wide range of clients—including mortgage lenders and servicers, fintech and marketplace lenders, auto finance companies, hedge funds, private equity firms, and payment companies—on regulatory structuring, examinations, enforcement matters, and strategic transactions. Her areas of focus include consumer and commercial finance regulation, money transmission, structured finance, and mergers and acquisitions involving regulated institutions. She also advises on emerging products such as point-of-sale financing, buy now, pay later programs, and co-branded credit offerings. With deep experience in multi-state licensing and the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), she helps clients streamline compliance and scale efficiently. She is widely regarded for her ability to translate regulatory complexity into clear, actionable strategies that align with business objectives.

Legal Counsel, Regulatory Compliance, Rocket Mortgage, LLC

Robbie Massie, as Legal Counsel, Regulatory Compliance for Rocket, works broadly across a wide array of mortgage origination compliance matters, and specializes in topics related to fair lending/fair housing, and artificial intelligence. Robbie advises on mortgage product development, licensing, regulatory change, federal and state regulatory examination, risk assessment, and machine-learning model/artificial intelligence development and implementation. In addition, in his 6-year career on the Rocket Legal Team, Robbie has worked extensively on advocacy-focused efforts, including shaping and developing artificial intelligence policy in the consumer financial services space and state community reinvestment acts application to independent mortgage lenders. Robbie is a graduate of the Michigan State College of Law and Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.