 |
 |
|
|
Bruce Richards is a business lawyer with an extensive corporate, transactional and regulatory background. Having served as general counsel and an executive officer of four publicly traded companies, he excels at evaluating, managing and advising with respect to the broad spectrum of legal challenges facing his clients’ businesses, and advising boards of directors and board committees with respect to strategic transactions and corporate governance matters. While serving as a general counsel, Mr. Richards also has performed several related roles, which have included overseeing legislative affairs, serving as corporate secretary, and serving as a member of or as legal adviser to the internal audit, risk management and pension committees.
Mr. Richards’ specific areas of industry expertise include, among others, payment processing (including credit card, check and e-payments), e-Commerce, consumer and commercial credit, consumer reporting and collections, and related data acquisition, use and protection. He has represented his clients in numerous multi-million dollar transactions, including acquisitions, both domestic and international, spin-offs, alliances, private debt and equity financings, government contracts, IT outsourcing, and patent licenses. In his practice, Mr. Richards represents his clients in a wide variety of other day-to-day business transactions and agreements, including software development agreements and licenses, marketing agreements, real property leases, and employment and consulting contracts. He has achieved favorable results for his clients handling numerous federal and state regulatory inquiries involving company practices affecting consumers.
Mr. Richards also has extensive experience in developing and implementing innovative litigation management programs for companies with significant volumes of recurring litigation.
Mr. Richards has served as general counsel and as a member of the executive teams of Telecredit (NASDAQ: TCRD), Equifax (NYSE: EFX), and Certegy (NYSE: CEY), and in 2007 was appointed interim general counsel of Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS), where he served in that capacity until the company’s merger with Verint Systems. Mr. Richards has served on the boards of trustees of the Link Counseling Center and Temple Sinai Atlanta, and is former Chairman of the executive committee of the Corporate Counsel Section of the State Bar of Georgia. He and his wife, Penina, have three children, Nicelle, Marley and Alden.