Lauren Giles

Lauren Giles is the Chief Counsel at Elavon. Lauren was previously a Partner at Alston & Bird LLP from May 2012 to January 2020. As a member of Alston & Bird's industry-leading Payment Systems Team, Lauren advised clients across the payments industry in significant strategic transactions. Representative deals include: providing commercial and regulatory advice regarding structuring and implementation of person-to-person and business-to-consumer faster payments platforms; negotiating card issuance agreements with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express on behalf of one of the largest retail banks in the U.S.; representing multiple major U.S. retail banks in negotiation of enterprise-level issuer processor and acquirer processor agreements; representing major U.S. retailers and service providers in a variety of sectors in negotiation of co-branding arrangements with card networks and issuing banks; providing regulatory advice to financial services industry trade group regarding cryptocurrency matters and emerging payments issues; negotiating mobile payment and digital wallet technology and acceptance agreements in multiple industry sectors including retail, restaurant, fuel, and transportation; representing major merchant acquirers and merchants in negotiation of payment acceptance agreements.

Lauren Giles received their Doctor of Law from New York University School of Law and their B.A. in Creative Writing/Political Science from Emory University.

Some of their coworkers include Pelwasha Faquiryan - EVP, U.S. Bank Payment Solutions & Global Airlines, Kristy Carstensen - Chief Financial Officer, Payment Services, and Scott Lippert - EVP, Payment Services Operations. Lauren Giles reports to Jamie Walker, CEO.