Justin K. Whitesides

Justin K. Whitesides

Of Counsel

One Financial Center
121 SW Morrison Street, Suite 600
Portland OR 97204

jwhitesides@fwwlaw.com
(503) 228-6044

Practice Summary

Justin creates solutions and solves problems for credit unions in the most efficient way possible. After nearly a decade as general counsel for a credit union, where he was also a member of senior management, Justin has unique insight into how laws, regulations, and supervisory pressures affect all aspects of a credit union and its membership. Justin’s guidance is goal-oriented, practical, and easy-to-understand.

While serving as general counsel, Justin’s key areas of responsibility included corporate governance, compliance, audit, human resources, collections, vendor management, and information security – in addition to all the legal issues that came from any other part of the organization. Justin is skilled at working with staff at all levels to ensure their goals are met and they understand the legal boundaries that apply to what they do.   

Before his in-house experience, Justin was a regulatory compliance attorney at Farleigh Wada Witt for several years. Even his first job before law school – and his first savings account – was in a credit union.

Aside from his credit union focus, Justin is also skilled in general business matters that include entity formation, contract review, purchase and sale agreements, property leases, and the strategic steps a business can take to keep potential lawsuits out of court.

On the personal side, Justin enjoys embarrassing his kids with dad jokes and making sure they know at least five songs before they are allowed to wear any rock band’s T-shirt. He and his wife lived and worked for a year in Poland before law school, and they still travel as much as possible. On weekends, he is generally hard to find – outside.

Representative Matters

Financial Services
  • Corporate governance
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Information security
  • FinTech and electronic services
  • Vendor management
  • Regulatory examination and enforcement issues
  • Contract negotiation and dispute resolution
  • Consumer and commercial lending
  • Deposit account administration
  • Forms development
  • Member complaints and dispute resolution
  • Bank Secrecy Act / anti-money laundering
  • Advertising compliance
  • Employment matters

Education

DePaul University College of Law (J.D. cum laude, 2012), Editor-in-Chief, DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal 
Arizona State University (B.A., English, cum laude, 2006)

Admissions

Oregon State Bar
Illinois State Bar

Associations

Business Law Section, American Bar Association
Consumer Financial Services Committee, American Bar Association
Credit Union Committee, American Bar Association

Publications

"CFPB's Exam Procedures Are Valuable Tools" Credit Union Magazine August 2013: 46
"More Mortgage Changes on the Horizon" Credit Union Magazine April 2013: Web
"The CFPB Is Keeping an Aggressive Pace" Credit Union Magazine Feb. 2013: 36
"The FTC's Competition Policy after the Intel Settlement" 9 DePaul Bus. & Com. L.J. 555 (2011)