They’ve Got Next: Banking and Finance Fresh Face Amber Hay

Losing a family home to foreclosure is a source of trauma for many people. For Arnold & Porter’s Amber Hay, it also served as an inspiration to help make the financial system work better for everyone.

Hay, a senior associate at the firm, said that her father pursued his dream of owning a home in Detroit prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Unfortunately, like many people prior to the crisis, he didn’t understand the terms of the subprime mortgage he signed on to and ultimately lost the home, Hay said.

Preventing the types of conduct that cost millions of Americans their homes helped Hay determine that banking law, a somewhat niche and “nerdy” focus, was her calling.

“It gave me a purpose in doing my work. And that’s what I was seeking,” Hay said.

The foreclosure experience has taken Hay, a “Midwesterner at heart,” from Michigan to Washington D.C., where she worked at the Federal Reserve from November 2014—she started the same day as former Fed Chair and current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen—until November 2017.

Banking regulatory lawyers often don’t have the same cache as high-stakes litigators or merger & acquisition attorneys, Hay said. But their work has broad impact on the financial lives of consumers, from buying a home to financing an education to keeping the economy moving, she said.

“It’s nerdy in a sense, but it’s the backbone of society,” she said.

Hay’s experience at the Fed gave her the chops to quickly become a standout in banking law.

Among Hay’s responsibilities are making sure that banks’ disclosures are clear and easy to understand, a job she takes seriously given her family’s experience.

“When I read through disclosures for clients, I try to make sure they’re understandable from the layman’s terms,” she said.

Hay also focuses on advising client banks on mergers and acquisitions, including how changes in a bank’s size can affect the amount of scrutiny they get from regulators, as well as general compliance with federal laws governing financial institutions.

“She has a very deep technical knowledge of the Federal Reserve’s statutes, its rules and policies and guidance,” David Freeman, the head of Arnold & Porter’s Financial Services Group, said of Hay.

That includes taking charge in efforts to get regulatory approval for First Citizens Bank’s $2.2 billion acquisition of CIT Group Inc., first announced in October 2020. The deal won approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in July and is awaiting sign off from the Fed.

‘Completely Unflappable’

Much of the work in preparing three separate applications for the Fed fell to Hay. The regulator needs to approve the combination of the bank holding companies, as well as their subsidiaries, before the deal can close. The Fed reviews mergers for competition-related issues, as well as to make sure a newly-combined bank will adequately serve the communities where it is located, among other issues.

Arnold & Porter has more partners in its Financial Services Group than associates, Hay said. And other associates didn’t have as much experience with bank mergers, she added.

“I knew at the end of the day it was going to be mostly me doing the application,” she said of the three Fed applications, all of which needed to be done within a month and a half.

Hay managed to wrangle the applications and coordinate with the other associates, getting the application in on time and maintaining a strong relationship with her team and client.

“She’s completely unflappable, calm, despite some high-pressure situations. She never breaks that,” Freeman said.

Hay credits her background in keeping her grounded. Hay was a two-time All-American in track at the University of Michigan despite being a walk-on on the team.

“It causes me to have the experience to not be intimidated by new tasks,” Hay said.

Unlike most of Michigan’s star runners her freshman year, Hay attended the university on a partial academic scholarship, meaning she had to balance a campus job, good grades and track. Hay later won a full scholarship during her freshman year when she attained All-American status as part of a distance medley relay team.

And then, as a senior, Hay fulfilled her promise to her coach that she would be an All-American in the 400-meter hurdles as well as a second time in the distance medley relay. She got into the final race after another runner pulled out.

Hay stayed in Ann Arbor, Mich., earning her degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 2012.

“When she wants something done, she gets it done,” Freeman said.