Michael Povman is a US Tech counsel in the New York office. Michael has over 30 years of experience advising on complex commercial, technology, and outsourcing transactions at a major financial institution.
He regularly counsels clients on structuring, negotiating, and managing strategic deals across a range of industries. Michael also advises on vendor risk management programs and technology-related initiatives, including AI implementation, cloud computing, intellectual property, and data privacy. His practice spans both advisory and transactional work, with a focus on helping clients navigate legal and regulatory challenges in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
- Advised on technology-driven initiatives, including bank-fintech collaborations, AI contracting standards, and legal issues involving intellectual property and data privacy.
- Built and led a high-performing global legal team of 20 attorneys and staff responsible for enterprise-wide vendor contracting.
- Served as lead counsel on a multimillion-dollar initiative to modernize core technology infrastructure.
- Advised “accelerator” program that identified and mentored startup fintech companies and offered resources, guidance, and potential for strategic investment / funding.
- Directed a cross-functional Third-Party Governance Program that enhanced vendor risk management and regulatory compliance, delivering actionable insights to executive leadership.
- Conceived and implemented a contract risk framework to standardize risk analysis and negotiation strategy across high-volume vendor transactions.
- Led large-scale “contract uplift” initiatives to assess and remediate thousands of vendor agreements in coordination with corporate procurement and compliance functions, business stakeholders, and external counsel.
- Improved regulatory compliance across matters related to technology, payments, information security, privacy, and vendor risk management, including developing corporate and business-level policies, and meeting with various regulatory agencies.
- Spearheaded a managed legal services engagement to outsource drafting and negotiation of high-volume, low-complexity contracts.
- Served as Secretary to a Technology Oversight Committee composed of senior executives and as Counsel to the Board’s Technology Committee.
- Established and led a patent mining program that resulted in the issuance of 30+ patents, including innovations that generated significant revenue from financial products.
News and client work
Contact details
- Clifford Chance, New York
- +12128783277
- Email me
Career & qualifications
- Brandeis University (BA) 1985
- Boston University School of Law (JD)
- Admitted as Attorney-at-Law in New York 1989
- Joined Clifford Chance as counsel 2025