Clifford Chance
Michael Povman is a US Tech counsel in the New York office
Michael has vast experience advising on commercial and tech transactions involving banks, including structuring, negotiating and managing transactions.
Additionally, he advises on tech-related initiatives such as AI implementation, intellectual property and data privacy.
- Advised on tech-related initiatives such as bank-fintech collaborations, AI contracting standards and counselling on intellectual property and data privacy issues.
- At BNY, built out high-performing team of 20 attorneys and staff with oversight for all vendor contracting globally.
- Served as lead legal advisor on multimillion-dollar project to upgrade the bank's technology infrastructure.
- Advised “accelerator” program that identified and mentored startup fintech companies and offered resources, guidance, and potential for strategic investment / funding.
- Oversaw multi-disciplinary Third-Party Governance Program that improved vendor risk management processes, ensuring compliance with global regulations and providing executive management with actionable insights into amount and nature of risk within supply chain.
- Reduced risk and improved contracting through conceiving and overseeing development of contract risk framework and related processes to objectively and consistently analyze vendor contracts and drive negotiation strategy across multiple transactions.
- Developed and directed “contract uplift” projects to assess and, where required, amend thousands of vendor contracts, coordinating with Procurement, Compliance, business teams, and outside 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.
- Led implementation of managed legal services engagement that outsourced contract drafting and negotiating functions for high-volume, low-complexity work.
- Served as Secretary of Technology Oversight Committee (comprised of CEO, CIO, CFO, General Counsel, and other senior executives) and as Counsel to the Technology Committee of the Board of Directors.
- Led establishment of patent mining program that produced issuance of 30+ patents, including patents for commodities-based ETF that led to millions of dollars in revenue for bank.
News and client work
Contact details
- Clifford Chance, New York
- +12128783277
- Email me
- Follow me on LinkedIn
Career and 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