Kevin Bishop

New York state's financial services regulatory agency, which many consider to be one of the most far-reaching entities in the world, has a new top lawyer with a background unlike most in the white-collar legal profession.

Kevin Bishop, the new acting general counsel at the state Department of Financial Services, is one generation apart from a life in Latin America.

The difficult experience of his grandmother and mother, who immigrated from Colombia to New York City in the 1960s, influenced him to become an attorney, and ultimately shift his career to the public sector, he said.

"I've been very happy with my choice," Bishop said. "I loved law school, which I think a lot of lawyers do. And I've actually liked practicing, which I do not think a lot of lawyers do."

He started a few weeks ago at DFS, where he oversees the Office of General Counsel at the agency. His position, as he describes it, is to lead the attorneys that advise the rest of the agency about the breadth of their authority.

That includes Linda Lacewell, the superintendent of DFS, who will rely on Bishop, and his staff, to act akin to in-house counsel for her and the rest of the agency's staff.

That's a powerful position to command. DFS regulates the state's banking and insurance industries, as well as any other financial products, and oversees more than $7 trillion in assets—more than the entire federal budget of the United States.

Recent years have been fruitful for the agency, to say the least. It was formed about eight years ago when the Legislature decided to consolidate the banking and insurance agencies into one entity—the Department of Financial Services. Since then, it's collected billions from companies who've violated the state's laws and regulations and continues to do so.

But the money recouped by DFS is only a fraction of its work. Bishop holds a similar view to Lacewell in that regard, with both emphasizing the agency's role of protecting consumers.

"At DFS, consumers are at the center of everything we do because they are often left out of the conversation," Bishop said. "They do not have the economic resources, the experience, or the knowledge to represent their own interests."

That's how Bishop's mother and grandmother, who he affectionately refers to as his "Nana", found themselves when they arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens more than five decades ago.

They had no money, they didn't know anyone in the country, and they didn't speak English. They had no idea where they were going to live, or how they would generate an income to remain in the country.

But Bishop's grandmother was motivated to succeed, a trait he credits her with passing on to him. She waited until she could find a cab driver at the airport who spoke Spanish and asked him where they could go until she had a plan for the next step.

"Luckily, he knew an Argentinian woman in Queens, who rented out rooms to lodgers, and that's where my grandmother and mother stayed for a few months," Bishop said.

His family was no stranger to the legal profession. Back in Colombia, Bishop's grandfather had been a judge. His father, a Brooklyn native, was interested in history and recognized that many prominent figures from decades past had practiced law, Bishop said.

"So, I think all of that seeped into my consciousness," Bishop said.

As did the experience that his grandmother and mother shared when they started to settle into their new life in Queens. At one point, his grandmother had a job as a hotel maid and didn't understand why people kept leaving money in the rooms she cleaned.

She would turn the money in, as lost property, to her manager, who Bishop said was happy to take it off her hands. It wasn't until later she realized those were her tips.

"My mother and grandmother struggled when they first got here," Bishop said. "I think that always stuck with me, and perhaps naively, I thought of the law in terms of justice and protecting people who can't do that for themselves."

That thought has always been the goal of his career as a lawyer, Bishop said. That's what brought him to the position at DFS, which he said was an opportunity he was excited to jump at when it came up earlier this year.

"The challenge was appealing to me, and then it was an opportunity to continue representing individuals," Bishop said.

He just moved over to the agency after spending almost four years as an assistant counsel in the executive chamber, under Gov. Andrew Cuomo. While there, he led some of Cuomo's major policy initiatives, like creating the state's first paid family leave program and raising the minimum wage statewide.

"I helped negotiate the legislation, I helped draft it, I helped get it passed," Bishop said. "Then, I was also involved in making those initiatives operational."

Prior to public service, most of Bishop's legal career was spent in the private sector. After graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2005, Bishop worked as an associate at McDermott Will & Emery, where he focused on general commercial litigation and white collar cases.

After a short stint as assistant general counsel at the University of North Carolina, Bishop then worked as an associate with Condon & Forsyth. He renewed his focus on commercial litigation at the firm and also worked in-house with the general counsel of British Airways, one of the firm's major clients.

Bishop was with the firm until he landed the job in Cuomo's executive chamber, though he said the hours aren't much different in the public sector. What is different, he said, is the kind of impact he's been able to make in his short time in state government.

"I think we are given a tremendous amount of responsibility," Bishop said. "You do really appreciate the influence you can have, and you want to ensure that's done in a way that's respectful to both sides of the issue, whatever it may be."

When it comes to DFS, Bishop said, there's not one particular issue he's more passionate about than others the agency handles. He said he's excited to see how DFS continues to grow, particularly after expanding its reach in recent years.

While DFS was shaped to consolidate two of the state's agencies, its regulatory purview has grown since its inception. The agency now has a hand in the state's burgeoning cryptocurrency and fintech markets, for example.

"If we're only looking at banking, that's not where people will be in 20 or 30 years," Bishop said. "That's what excites me about being here, is getting into these novel areas."

While it's only been a month at the agency, Bishop, who's in his early 40s, said he has no plans to leave the agency anytime soon.

"I'm quite happy where I am," Bishop said.

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