Alan S. Kaplinsky

Business and Finance, Consumer Financial Services, Corporate and Government Investigations and White Collar Defense, Higher Education, Litigation

Alan S. Kaplinsky is a senior partner in the Business and Finance Department and Chair of the Consumer Financial Services Group. He is also a member of the Higher Education Group and Corporate and Government Investigations and White Collar Defense Group, as well as the Financial Institutions Reform Task Force.

Mr. Kaplinsky devotes his practice exclusively to counseling financial institutions with respect to bank regulatory and transactional matters, particularly consumer financial services law, and defending financial institutions that have been sued by consumers and governmental enforcement agencies in individual and class action lawsuits. He pioneered the use of pre-dispute arbitration provisions in consumer contracts, has counseled numerous consumer financial services companies on this subject, and has defended in court numerous companies that have sought to enforce consumer arbitration agreements.

Mr. Kaplinsky is included in the 2006 through 2010 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of banking. Chambers calls him "a guru of consumer financial services on both the regulatory and litigation sides [who has] earned his well-deserved national reputation when successfully defending the very first class actions brought against financial institutions." In the 2010 edition, he is one of seven lawyers ranked in the highest band, nationally, for Financial Services Regulation: Consumer Financial Services Compliance, and one of six lawyers ranked in the highest band, Pennsylvania, for Banking & Finance: Mainly Regulatory. A recent edition states: "This practice ticks all the boxes, with one client praising its expertise in cutting-edge matters and exemplary service. The team excels in consumer financial services regulatory and enforcement work. Chair of the practice Alan Kaplinsky is highly recommended by market sources. [He is] at the forefront of the latest developments in the consumer financial services sector."

Professional Activities

American Bar Association, past Chair, Committee on Consumer Financial Services

Consumer Bankers Association, Lawyers Committee

University of Pennsylvania Law School and Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, past Adjunct Professor

Judicial Conference of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, permanent member

Recognition & Accomplishments

Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2007-2010, leading lawyer in Banking & Finance: Financial Services Regulation: Consumer Financial Services Regulation (national band 1) and Mainly Regulatory (Pennsylvania band 1); 2006, national leading lawyer in Financial Services: Regulatory Enforcement & Investigations 

The Best Lawyers in America, banking law, 2007-2010

American Law Institute, elected member since May 2006

American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, first President

Publications

Advisory Panelist, Truth-in-Lending: A Comprehensive Guide, published and updated annually by Law and Business, Inc./Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Member, Financial Services Advisors, Consumer Financial Services Law Report

Co-author, "Open-End Credit Disclosures" and "Billing Error Resolution," chapters in the Truth in Lending treatise authored by Rohner and Miller, American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, 2000

Speaking Engagements

Annual Chair, "Consumer Financial Services Litigation," Practising Law Institute Annual Institute, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco

Presenter to numerous organizations on banking and financial institutions law

Boston College Law School (J.D.1970, cum laude)
Editor, Boston College Industrial and Commercial Law Review; Member, Order of the Coif

University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business (B.S. 1967, cum laude)

Pennsylvania 1971