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Olivia Kelman
Olivia Kelman

Olivia Kelman

Partner
Miami
+1.305.539.3382
Email Olivia Kelman @ olivia.kelman@klgates.com
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Olivia Kelman serves as practice group coordinator for the firm’s financial institutions and services litigation group. She focuses on representing financial institutions and services clients in litigation, compliance, and enforcement matters, with a concentration on fair and responsible lending and servicing. She regularly advises clients seeking to identify and mitigate fair lending risk, or defend fair lending claims, in areas relevant to the client’s business, including redlining, branching, pricing, underwriting, marketing, steering, servicing, and modeling.

With a deep understanding of the business practices of a wide variety of industry participants, Olivia has represented clients large and small, including national and community banks, non-bank mortgage lenders, fintech lenders, commercial and small business lenders, auto lenders, appraisers and appraisal management companies, loan servicers, private mortgage insurers, investors, broker-dealers, real estate sales corporations, and industry trade groups. She is recognized for crafting tailor-made solutions that appropriately balance business considerations and ever-changing regulatory requirements.

Olivia has successfully litigated government, individual, and class action matters in federal district and circuit courts, as well as in state trial and appellate courts. She also defends investigations, examinations, and enforcement actions by the United States Department of Justice, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Trade Commission and various state regulators, including the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, the New York Department of Financial Services, and Massachusetts Division of Banks. Her experience includes matters arising under various federal laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Fair Housing Act, Community Reinvestment Act, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, Truth in Lending Act, and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

In addition to her representation of industry clients, Olivia is dedicated to advancing civil rights through pro bono representations. She has represented individual and organizational clients on a pro bono basis in federal trial and appellate courts on a variety of issues of national importance, including school desegregation, religious freedom for prison inmates, residential segregation, and voting discrimination.

Prior to joining K&L Gates, Olivia was a judicial intern for the Hon. Frank A. Shepherd in the Florida Third District Court of Appeal, the Hon. United States District Judge Alan S. Gold in the Southern District of Florida, and the Hon. United States Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres in the Southern District of Florida. She was a legislative policy intern for United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in Fall 2009, and an editor of Arché, the Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy at Boston University in Spring 2009.

  • Top Up & Comer, South Florida Legal Guide, 2018–2022
  • Florida Rising Stars list, 2016 - 2023
  • Pro Bono Award, Indian River County, Florida Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 29th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet, 2019
  • The Daily Business Review Most Effective Lawyers Pro Bono Award, 2019
  • Legal Elite Up & Comer, Florida Trend, 2019
  • Order of the Coif
  • The Order of Barristers
  • Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges, 2013
  • Guest Lecturer, “Regulatory Compliance,” Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance, Barry University
    • (9 September 2023; 7 February 2023)
  • Guest Lecturer, “Appellate Brief Writing,” Advanced Appellate Advocacy, University of Miami School of Law
    • (14 September 2022; 8 September 2021; 2 September 2020)
  • Miami-Dade Florida Association for Women Lawyers
    • Chair, Elections Committee, 2016-2018
    • Co-Chair, Federal Court Liaison Committee, 2015-2016
    • Co-Chair, Elections Committee, 2015
    • Co-Chair, Installation Committee, 2015
  • The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade
    • Member, Grant Selection Committee, 2015
  • Member, Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, 2014-present
  • Member, Florida Grand Opera, 2013-present
  • Member, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2015-present
  • Moderator, “Lessons for Success in 2024,” Wolters Kluwer CRA and Fair Lending Colloquium (12-15 November 2023) 
  • Speaker, “Section 1071: A Practical Approach to Unpacking the CFPB’s Final Rule,” Mortgage Bankers Association webinar (13 September 2023)
  • Speaker, “Top Developments Driving Fair Lending Compliance,” Wolters Kluwer Webinar (18 May 2023)
  • Speaker, “Fair Lending,” Mortgage Bankers Association Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference (7 May 2023)
  • Moderator, “What happens in Vegas should not stay in Vegas: Lessons to take home,” Wolters Kluwer CRA and Fair Lending Colloquium (13-16 November 2022)
  • Panelist, “Tapping the Potential of SPCPs: A Hands-on Workshop for Mortgage Lenders,” iEmergent Workshop (9 November 2022)
  • Speaker, “Important Fair Lending Cases,” Mortgage Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference (18 September 2022)
  • Speaker, “Fair Lending and Redlining: Managing and Maintaining Your Compliance Program,” Mortgage Bankers Association Webinar (9 February 2022)
  • Moderator, “The Path Forward: Directional Strategies for 2022,” Wolters Kluwer CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium (17 November 2021)
  • Speaker, “Fair Lending,” Mortgage Bankers Association Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference (26 May 2021)
  • Speaker, “Compliance Strategies for 2020,” Wolters Kluwer CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium (7 December 2020)
  • Speaker, “Fair Lending Litigation,” Mortgage Bankers Association’s Regulatory Compliance Conference (22 September 2019)
  • Speaker, "Certified Mortgage Compliance Professionals Track: Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity Laws," Mortgage Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference (5 May 2019)
  • Speaker, “Fair Lending: Where Are We Now?” American Financial Services Association’s (AFSA) Law & Compliance Symposium (8 March 2019)
  • Panelist, “Fair Lending Litigation, Enforcement, and Regulation Roundup,” K&L Gates Consumer Financial Services Symposium (3 December 2018)
  • Moderator, “Pillars of Fair Lending: Master the Fundamentals,” Wolters Kluwer CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium (6 November 2018)
  • Panelist, “Reverse Engineering a Compliance Program from Consent Decrees, Enforcement Actions and More,” Wolters Kluwer CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium (6 Nov. 2017)
  • Panelist, “Compliance Essentials/CMCP: Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity Laws,” Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Regulatory Compliance Conference (17 September 2017)
  • Panelist, “Supreme Court Fair Lending Ruling Involving Big Banks,” Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Webinar (31 May 2017)
  • Panelist, “Compliance Essentials: Overview of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity Compliance,” Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference (7 May 2017)
  • Panelist, “Fair Lending Essentials,” Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference (1 May 2016)
  • Speaker, “Ethical Governance Day at New World School of the Arts,” sponsored by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (2015-2019)
  • Speaker, “The Resurgence of Redlining – The Hudson City Savings Bank Settlement and How to Manage Redlining Risk,” K&L Gates Webinar (14 October 2015)
  • Speaker, “SCOTUS Disparate Impact Decision: The Supreme Court Recognizes but Limits Disparate Impact in its Fair Housing Act Decision,” K&L Gates Webinar (1 July 2015)
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