Mr. Abbott is currently serving as an Of Counsel to Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, P.C., in San Francisco, where he was a director and headed the firm’s Financial Institutions and Services Group from 1994 through 2006, and also served on the firm’s Administrative Committee and as Chair of the firm’s Business Department. From 2006 until early 2009, he also served as the Chief Legal Officer, Director of Government Relations, and Corporate Secretary for The REX Group in San Francisco.
Prior to joining Howard Rice, Mr. Abbott was a partner at Morrison & Foerster for eleven years. Mr. Abbott has provided legal counsel to many of the largest institutions and corporations in the country. He has been heavily involved in credit, e-commerce and payment matters, and taught the Payment Systems course at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He has spoken widely on corporate, commercial, insurance and financial institutions matters, and his articles on banking and insurance law appear frequently in many national publications. He is a graduate (Phi Beta Kappa) of Dartmouth College, earned his M.B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. (Order of the Coif) from the University of Florida.
Professional Affiliations
- Member, Conference on Consumer Finance Law Governing Committee
- Former Member, Federal Reserve Board Consumer Advisory Council
- Former Chairperson, Federal Reserve Board Consumer Advisory Council Consumer Credit Committee
- Former Vice Chairperson, ABA Consumer Financial Services Committee
- Former Vice Chair, California Business Law Section Executive Committee
- Former Chair, California Business Law Section Financial Institutions Committee
- Former President, Barristers Club of San Francisco
- Fellow, and former Treasurer and Secretary, American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers