International law firm Bird & Bird boosts its Finance & Financial Regulation practice with the appointment of payments and fintech specialist Gidget Brugman as a partner in the Netherlands.
Gidget joins Bird & Bird from Eversheds Sutherland, where she was a partner and head of the firm’s Banking, Finance and Financial services regulation practice group since 2019. Gidget has over 20 years of experience advising companies on a wide range of complex issues regarding regulation on financial supervision and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
She has a broad financial services regulatory practice with a focus on payments and fintech. Gidget assists clients with license applications at the Dutch Central Bank and the Dutch Financial Authority as well as compliance (including CDD and AML audits), governance and risk management, market conduct matters and permissibility of activities and investments.
Gidget’s appointment comes as part of the strategic expansion of Bird & Bird’s international Finance & Financial Regulation practice. At Bird & Bird, Gidget will advise clients mainly around issues relating to payments services and fintech. On top of that, she will also assist clients with matters concerning financial services regulation in a broader sense, such as crowdfunding, consumer credit and investment funds.
Jeroen van der Lee and Marc van Wijngaarden, co-heads of Bird & Bird in the Netherlands say: “Gidget’s arrival at Bird & Bird will transform our client offering in the Netherlands, particularly in the fintech and the payments sectors. In the current digital world, it’s never been more important to support our clients through the rapidly changing regulatory landscape.”
Joss Hargrave, Michael Jünemann and Giuseppe D’Agostino, co-heads of the international Finance & Financial Regulation practice at Bird & Bird add: “Gidget’s 20 years of expertise working with financial institutions is a fantastic boost to our Finance & Financial Regulation practice at Bird & Bird. At such an innovative period of growth and digital transformation for the financial sector, Gidget’s wealth of knowledge in payments, crypto assets, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and blockchain will prove invaluable to our clients. Welcome to the team Gidget!”
Gidget, herself says: “I’m thrilled to be joining an established global law firm like Bird & Bird. The firm will enable me to build a sustainable practice with more complex finance regulatory work, both in the Netherlands and across the firm’s global network. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues internationally and fostering Bird & Bird’s one firm culture.”
