When he PeeRS into the near future, Duncan Douglass sees customers buying anything and everything with their smartphones—no credit card required.

Douglass is at the forefront of mobile payment systems law, a niche he’s carved out at Alston & Bird working with banks, credit card companies and vendors toward the goal of making this kind

of technology available to all.Douglass doesn’t know which on-the-go

payment technology will catch on, but he’s convinced that it will, likely within the next five years. Possibilities for purchases include cellphone bar codes, microchips that send a wireless buying signal or perhaps a single-use payment number code.

“It’s coming, but the landscape is still open. We’re not even down to a VhS vs. Betamax, or a Blue-ray vs. hD DVD,” he says. “There aren’t two front-runners that are battling it out for which one will drive the direction of mobile payments.”

The lack of a dominant technology—or laws and regulations to govern it—creates an opportunity for Douglass and his client

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companies to shape the legal implications from the beginning. he’s been working with companies and government agencies to define the rules.

In many cases, he says, it’s unclear whether existing banking rules apply, including the newer ones created as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Should a cellphone company be treated like a bank when it extends credit for customers to buy ring tones or video games, and then adds the cost to your monthly bill? What consumer protections should be granted when companies want to use individuals’ purchasing data for marketing purposes? Are phone payments entitled to similar liability protections as debit cards, or are they more like prepaid gift cards?

“There’s generally a desire for the approach to be cautious, not to stifle innovation, not to impose an unnecessary burden on the industry,” Douglass says.

Douglass works with The Clearing house, the nation’s oldest banking association and payments company, on almost a daily basis to help draft comment letters, amicus briefs, facilitate discussions with lawmakers and craft remittance transfer proposals, says Rob hunter, deputy general counsel.

“Duncan’s substantive knowledge is extraordinary. It runs the spectrum of payments-related legal issues,” hunter says. “I’m always amazed by the careful attention to detail he brings to any project. I would rank Duncan among the very best payments lawyers in the country.”

Many companies want to get in on the mobile payments action even though few consumers have used this kind of technology.

More and more banks and credit card companies will allow transactions through smartphone apps. Services such as Google Wallet will begin to store credit card information on a phone, with purchases completed by tapping it to a device at the point of sale. Companies such as PayPal will expand retail partnerships similar to its arrangement with The home Depot Co., in which customers can shop by using a PayPal card or mobile phone number. Businesses themselves will try to gain

customer loyalty with their own payment systems, such as the Starbucks app and mobile gift card.

Douglass became a mobile payments expert when the work came to him. After clerking for Judge Gerald Tjoflat at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the eleventh Circuit, he joined Alston & Bird’s financial services group as an associate in 2001. he handled securities and M&A work, and he was designated as the point person for the firm’s electronics payments business in this third or fourth year. By his fifth year, the fast-growing practice had taken over his entire workload.

Today, the firm’s payments group includes five partners, three counsel and about eight supporting associates.

Besides mobile payments, Douglass also negotiates with international banks and credit card companies to ease access to money abroad. The firm has been working with networks to expand their reach in countries including China, South Korea, Singapore and India, he says.

An agreement reached in 2010 between Discover Financial Services and BC Card customers in South Korea allowed BC Card customers to make purchases and get cash where Discover cards are accepted.

“he understands the importance of taking business objectives into account when considering legal issues,” says nancy Brooks, Discover’s vice president and assistant general counsel.

For Fiserv, an information management and electronic commerce systems provider, Douglass has provided advice on regulatory compliance, emerging payment platforms and complex commercial transactions, says Jared Silverman, the company’s group counsel for digital payments.

“he is able to quantify and qualify risk in a meaningful way, which is extremely valuable in guiding business decisions,” Silverman says.

For mobi le payments to become commonplace, more people need to become comfortable with smartphones and more businesses need to become equipped with devices that can connect with them, Douglass

says. he suspects a technology called near field communication, which establishes radio links between devices in close proximity, will win out, but he acknowledges that “five years from now, people may be laughing at me for saying that.”

“We’re seeing the technologification—if I can make up a word—of the population, and that’s sort of a predicate step to using some of these new payment mechanisms that are in development,” he says. “That’s why we see a tremendous growth potential in the area.”

—Mark Niesse

Reprinted with permission from the 8/27/12 edition of the DAILY REPORT © 2012 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. Contact: 877-257-3382 reprints@alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com. # 451-08-12-04

Daily RepoRt

undergraduate: Cornell University, government

law school: Duke University School of Law

as a Kid wanted to be: A doctor

last vacation: Bar Harbor, Maine (July 2012)

last booK: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

fallbacK career: Fishing guide

first job: Hospital orderly

the taKeaway: Being responsive and available goes a long way toward getting ahead.

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