Stephen A. Aschettino is a partner and litigation attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. An accomplished trial attorney and former general counsel with more than 20 years of experience, his practice encompasses a wide variety of complex commercial litigation matters. Mr. Aschettino has also served as lead counsel in insurance, bankruptcy and products liability cases. He is a member of the firm’s Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations, Insurance & Reinsurance Litigation, and Consumer Financial Services Practices.
Mr. Aschettino’s practice includes a particular focus on issues impacting the growing electronic payment processing industry. His broad capabilities in the global payments space include negotiating and drafting key processing and sponsorship agreements, such as BIN, ISO, merchant, cash advance, referral partner and agent agreements; structuring inter-company transactions and merchant portfolio sales; resolving contractual and residual disputes between service providers; advising financial institutions in distress situations; counseling companies with data breaches; and advising on Visa, MasterCard, PCI Data Security Standards and government compliance issues. Mr. Aschettino serves as outside general counsel to numerous e-payments companies.
Mr. Aschettino has been responsible for national and regional litigation portfolios for companies in numerous industries, including financial services, e-commerce, insurance and manufacturing. He has represented companies ranging from Fortune 500 to early growth, has served as outside general counsel to various middle-market companies and has provided individual counsel to company CEOs and founders. Mr. Aschettino has successfully represented court-appointed fiduciaries in bankruptcy and other distress situations.
Prior to joining Foley, Mr. Aschettino co-founded Aschettino Struhs LLP and served as the firm’s managing partner, while also leading the litigation, e-payments and insurance practices. Previously, he served as general counsel to Cynergy Data, LLC, a leading provider of electronic payment processing solutions. In this role, Mr. Aschettino served as a corporate advisor in the fast-growing global payments industry and advised on a wide variety of litigation, transactional and regulatory matters. Prior to his in-house counsel position, Mr. Aschettino was a partner at another global law firm, where he served as lead and trial counsel in high-exposure cases and managed litigation portfolios across the country. He began his career as an advisor to financial services companies at Ernst & Young, LLP in New York City.
