Lucas E.
Beirne

Mr. Beirne has broad experience with the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, Bank Holding Company Act, Federal Reserve Act, National Bank Act and related financial regulations. He has represented clients before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve Banks. In addition, he has prepared individuals for testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Prior to joining Cravath, Mr. Beirne was Senior Counsel in the Legal Division at the Federal Reserve Board. During his eight years at the Federal Reserve Board, he focused on novel and complex enforcement actions, as well as related bank supervision and policy matters. Mr. Beirne’s work included a number of significant public and private enforcement actions involving banks, holding companies and foreign banking organizations that addressed regulatory capital, credit risk management, third‑party risk management, Bank Secrecy Act and anti‑money laundering requirements (BSA/AML), consumer compliance risk management, unfair or deceptive acts or practices (UDAP), information technology, cybersecurity and bank holding company source of strength requirements. He regularly advised supervisory appeals panels and drafted appeals decisions addressing complex bank supervision issues. In addition, Mr. Beirne’s work included a detail to the Federal Reserve’s Congressional Liaison Office, where he helped prepare Federal Reserve principals and senior staff for congressional testimony and managed responses to congressional oversight requests.

Mr. Beirne handled all aspects of the Federal Reserve’s revision of its supervisory appeals process, including drafting the final rule, educating examiners on the new process and establishing anti‑retaliation procedures and education. In 2021, he received the Federal Reserve’s Special Achievement Award, recognizing his work in overhauling the Federal Reserve’s process for issuing enforcement actions addressing deficiencies identified during the bank examination process. In 2022, Mr. Beirne led an interdivisional team that established the Federal Reserve’s policy on whistleblower claims and process for addressing whistleblower allegations of misconduct in Federal Reserve supervised financial institutions.

Mr. Beirne also has significant congressional experience. He was detailed to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services for two years, where he drafted legislative proposals and advised on banking laws, regulation and policy, and oversight of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He prepared Committee members and staff for hearings on bank supervision, regulation and merger policy.

Mr. Beirne grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to attending law school, he worked in emergency services, including as a firefighter, flight paramedic and critical care registered nurse.

Mr. Beirne received a B.S.N. from the University of Virginia in 2008, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2012, where he was the Articles Development Editor of the Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif and the Raven Society. After graduating, Mr. Beirne served as a law clerk to Hon. T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, followed by a clerkship to Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prior to his service with the Federal Reserve, he was a litigation associate at another Washington, D.C. law firm.