Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP, a leading nationwide specialty litigation law firm with 175 attorneys nationally in 19 offices in 10 states, is pleased to announce that Kirsten Patzer, Shawn Bingham, Kurt Lofgren, and Brian O’Donnell are joining the team in different offices across the country. These additions strengthen the financial and insurance coverage practice areas, bringing a broad experience.  

Shawn Bingham joins as a Partner in the Atlanta office. Mr. Bingham will practice in the Firm’s Insurance Coverage and Commercial Litigation/D&O National Practice Sections. He regularly counsels insurance companies on coverage issues, prosecutes declaratory judgment actions on behalf of insurance companies, and defends insurance companies in bad faith actions filed by insureds. His commercial practice covers a wide array of complex business disputes and class action claims. 

Kirsten Patzer joins as a Partner in FMG’s Boston office. Ms. Patzer is a trial attorney with a practice focused on representing and counseling financial services firms, financial advisors, and registered investment advisors. As former in-house counsel to several financial institutions, including the largest independent broker dealer in the United States and a Fortune 500 financial services company, she brings a distinctive set of skills, experiences, and insights to her litigation practice. 

Kurt Lofgren joins as Of Counsel to Freeman Mathis & Gary and Senior Compliance and Regulatory Consultant at the firm. In this role, Kurt helps clients develop effective compliance programs consistent with their business strategies, create effective risk mitigation programs and resolve regulatory issues. Mr. Lofgren has been an executive compliance leader and attorney at various firms throughout his career.  Most recently, Mr. Lofgren led LPL Financial’s Business Risk Management department, as well as serving as Chief Compliance Officer for the firm’s investment adviser.   

Brian O’Donnell joins as a Senior Compliance Consultant of the Compliance and Regulatory Consulting team at Freeman Mathis & Gary. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. O’Donnell was Vice President of Product Distribution Compliance for Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Mr. O’Donnell has over 39 years of experience in the financial services industry and has been an active leader in the industry. He has spoken on or moderated a number of discussion panels for various industry trade organizations, including chairing the Due Diligence and Complex Product Council and co-authoring a White Paper on Due Diligence and Complex Products for the Financial Services Institute. 

Ben Mathis, FMG’s Managing Partner, said, “Our latest colleagues add tremendous skills and additional depth to both our nationally recognized Insurance Coverage and Financial Institutions practices. We were fortunate to attract these outstanding professionals who each wanted a strong platform from coast to coast to continue to build their practices.”   

“We are extremely excited about Kurt and Brian joining the consulting team at FMG. They each bring decades of experience to assist our clients during this difficult time, when broker dealers and investment advisor firms scramble to maintain regulatory compliance.” Don Runkle, Director of the Compliance and Regulatory Department at FMG.