Kirkland & Ellis has announced the appointment of Kara Kuchar as a partner in its firm, bringing significant expertise in fintech regulation to its legal team. Kara specializes in payments, licensing, and regulatory compliance, and her arrival enhances the firm’s ability to advise clients navigating the fast-evolving financial technology landscape.
With a career focused on supporting private equity firms, fintech startups, and money service businesses, Kara has built a reputation for guiding clients through complex legal matters tied to payment products and services. Her work spans a wide range of areas, including e-commerce platforms, money transmission, business-to-business payment solutions, stablecoin issuance, rewards programs, prepaid card management, payroll processing, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency exchanges. She also provides legal counsel on newer financial offerings such as buy-now-pay-later services, merchant cash advances, and licensing for commercial lending.
Kara is known not only for her transactional and compliance work but also for her thought leadership in the fintech space. She frequently writes and speaks on industry topics, including at events hosted by the Money Transmitter Regulators Association, where she shares insights on regulatory trends and best practices.
Before joining Kirkland & Ellis, Kara was a partner at McDermott, Will & Schulte. Her move to Kirkland reflects the firm’s continued investment in building a robust fintech regulatory practice, capable of supporting clients across a wide spectrum of financial services and technologies.
KEY QUOTES:
“Kara is highly regarded for leading regulated financial services providers through complex transactions, especially in rapid growth areas such as payments and digital assets, where many of our clients are active and where we expect continued demand. Kara adds depth to our existing fintech regulatory team, and we’re excited to welcome her to Kirkland.”
Jon A. Ballis, Chairman of Kirkland’s Executive Committee
“I’ve had the pleasure to work with Kirkland lawyers over the years as co-counsel, and I’m excited to team up on the powerful Kirkland platform. I’m grateful for the terrific experiences I had and the industry relationships I formed over the prior two decades, and I am confident this move to Kirkland will best serve our clients.”
Kara Kuchar
