Samantha M. Kirby

Samantha Kirby is Chair of Goodwin’s Financial Services group and co-chair of the Banking and Consumer Financial Services practice. Samantha advises boards and management of financial institutions, fintech companies (including fintechs operating in the crypto space), and other financial services firms on strategic corporate governance and bank regulatory and compliance matters, SEC reporting, and capital markets and M&A transactions. For banks, Samantha’s transactional work includes mutual-to-stock conversions, holding company formations, and de novo bank chartering. In addition to working with the firm's full service bank and thrift clients, Samantha has worked extensively with nonbank financial services providers to establish limited purpose trust banks and other nontraditional vehicles for providing fiduciary and asset management services, and advises banks and trust companies that manage collective investment funds and other commingled pools. She has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Samantha regularly represents clients before federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, the Massachusetts Division of Banks and numerous other state bank regulators.

Samantha has significant M&A and corporate finance experience. Recent representative transactions include: 

• Brookline Bancorp, Inc.’s acquisition of PCSB Financial Corporation
• Alvarium Investments’ merger with Tiedemann Group
• Citizens Financial Group, Inc.’s acquisition of College Raptor
• Northmark Bank’s sale to Cambridge Trust Company
• Randolph Bancorp’s sale to Hometown Financial Group
• East Cambridge Savings Bank’s acquisition of Patriot Community Bank
• HarborOne Bancorp, Inc.’s mutual-to-stock conversion and minority stock offering, acquisition of Coastway Bancorp, Inc., and second-step conversion
• Cross Financial Corp. in a number of insurance agency acquisitions

Samantha is a member of the American Bar Association and is co-chair of the Banking Law Section of the Boston Bar Association.

Samantha has been recognized by Chambers US since 2013 for her work in Massachusetts in Banking & Finance: Corporate & Regulatory. She has also been recognized by Chambers USA nationwide since 2020 for her work in Financial Services Regulation: Financial Institutions M&A.

Samantha regularly speaks about corporate governance, strategic planning, and other topics of interest to financial institutions to legal and banking industry groups, including the American Bankers Association, the Massachusetts Bankers Association, the New York Bankers Association, the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, the New Hampshire Bankers Association, the Vermont Bankers Association and the Maryland Bankers Association.