Manley Williams

Manley Williams counsels clients on the legal issues arising throughout the life cycle of their credit products — from design and marketing, to credit applications periodic statements, and promotions, changes in terms, account closures, and collections.

A Partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Buckley Sandler LLP, Ms. Williams has extensive experience working with clients to develop credit programs, simplify credit agreements, adapt procedures for online and mobile environments, and implement, improve, and amend customer rewards programs.

Ms. Williams helps companies sell their products over time, whether traditional banks with credit cards, online lenders with installment loans, startups with charge cards, or merchants with installment plans. She helps companies navigate the federal and state law governing credit, licensing, prohibitions on unfair deceptive and abusive acts and practices, limitations on lending to the military, and compliance with antidiscrimination laws.

She helps institutions evaluate fair lending issues in judgmental underwriting, advises financial institutions where to locate their card issuing banks to benefit from state laws on the exportation of interest rates, and assists merchants and emerging companies with implementing their credit programs.

Ms. Williams assists lenders revise and refine key operational processes, disclosures, and customer agreements necessitated by changing legal standards. She also conducts training for in-house counsel on legal developments in the credit card industry, including compliance with emerging Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP) standards.

Before joining Buckley Sandler, Ms. Williams was Counsel with Wilmer Cutler Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP, and prior to that she was a staff attorney at the Federal Reserve Board’s (FRB) Legal Division and Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, where she advised financial institutions on compliance with regulations including Regulations Z (Truth in Lending Act (TILA)), B (Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)), E (Electronic Fund Transfer (EFTs)), and CC (Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks).

Ms. Williams received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Stanford University. She organizes and hosts Card Roundtables where industry leaders discuss emerging issues in a congenial environment.

She has a particular interest in financial literacy, and is a frequent presenter at public schools in the greater D.C. area, instructing students and teachers in understanding and using credit and debit cards, mobile phone plans, and other common consumer credit vehicles.