Selena's pragmatic approach to complex business transactions and strong experience in financial services informs her multidisciplinary corporate practice.
Overview
Selena handles mergers and acquisitions, secured lending transactions and general corporate matters.
She assists clients in assessing opportunities, structuring investments and financial products, and managing both strategic partnerships and customer relationships.
Selena also serves as outside general counsel to privately held businesses, domestic and foreign investors and nonprofit corporations. In this role, she provides continuity across her clients' various investments and throughout the life cycle of their businesses. She counsels clients through ownership changes, internal reorganizations, acquisitions and divestitures, regulatory compliance, and other operational matters. Clients appreciate her creative and dynamic approach to navigating complex legal issues.
Selena's clients operate in a diverse range of industries, including banking, financial services, healthcare, mining/energy, construction and technology.
Prior to joining private practice, Selena interned at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and taught English in Hong Kong. She is a private pilot with a VFR rating and is ASA certified in Basic Keelboat Sailing.
Experience
Banking and Financial Services
Assists community banks in mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, conversions, branch acquisitions/divestitures, shareholder matters, and contract negotiations with FinTech companies, core service providers, and other vendors.
Represents banks and non-bank lenders in secured financing transactions, including commercial lines of credit, agricultural loans, and transaction-based financing.
Represents a foreign non-depository institution in structuring, negotiating, and managing its financial investments and programs with U.S. partners.
Represents a bankers' bank in developing and managing its customer products, including correspondent services, analytics solutions, and interest rate protection/swap agreements; assisted with revisions to their suite of customer documents to improve and streamline the onboarding experience.
Assists consumer lending companies in developing new loan products and FinTech in compliance with licensing and regulatory regimes.
Outside General Counsel
Assisted a mining company with contract negotiations to secure engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services, water and other utilities, easements, and other business needs; managed vendor disputes and other operational matters.
Assisted a consumer lending company in obtaining over $100 million in financing, through combinations of senior and mezzanine loans and family & friends investments; navigates them through regulatory and licensing matters, ownership changes, and new business developments.
Assisted a nonprofit healthcare organization in obtaining regulatory approval for an internal reorganization; counsels them with respect to strategic investments, new partnerships, and operational matters.
Implemented and developed a complex ownership structure for an international oil and gas conglomerate with 9-figure assets, ensuring that net ownership targets in dozens of entities and business ventures in various countries were met through equity arrangements and shareholder agreements.
International
Advises foreign clients in analyzing, structuring, and negotiating investments in the United States. Selena has worked with clients from numerous countries, including Germany, Spain, Mexico, Korea, Haiti, and Kuwait and, through local counsel, has supported operations in Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Selena is uniquely suited to this role because she is a former exchange student (AFS-Hong Kong 1997-1998), taught English in Hong Kong, and also lived abroad in Argentina.
News & Insights
News
Speaking Engagements
“Contract Training for Business,” 2023 Women in Banking Conference, May 2023
Publications
"The Mining Industry Should Not Ignore ESG," Engineering and Mining Journal, June 2023
"Is Your Bank Ready for LIBOR Fallback?" Colorado Banker, June 2023
"Electronic Signatures: A Primer for Navigating during COVID-19" Clarks' Bank Deposits and Payments Monthly, June 2020
"Trends in Virtual Currency," Western Banker: A Publication of Western Independent Bankers, July/August 2018
"Does the FDCPA Apply to Non-Judicial Foreclosures?: Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split," Clarks' Secured Transactions Monthly, July 2018
"Electronic Signatures: A Primer," Clarks' Bank Deposits and Payments Monthly, November 2017
Colorado Enacts New Privacy and Cybersecurity Legislation, June 2018
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
AFS-USA Foreign Exchange Programs
Arizona Bankers Association
Colorado Bankers Association
Independent Bankers of Colorado
Colorado Women in Mining
Alaska Miners Association
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Arizona, 2019
- Colorado, 2017
- Florida, 2012
- Kansas, 2008
- Missouri, 2007
Education
Washington University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2007
- Global Studies Law Review, Associate Editor
University of Kansas, B.A., magna cum laude, 2002
