Three former senior enforcement leaders from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have launched a new public interest law firm, Halperin Petersen & Mikkilineni LLP (HPM), signaling a renewed focus on advocating for consumer rights, tenant rights, workers’ rights, and civil rights.
Eric Halperin, Cara Petersen, and Tara Mikkilineni, who collectively led a CFPB team that secured orders for $9.5 billion in penalties and payments to consumers between 2021 and 2025, will now leverage their extensive experience to tackle a range of issues. These include predatory lending, illegal junk fees, deceptive schemes, unlawful evictions, discriminatory housing practices, wage theft, illegal misclassification, invasive monitoring programs, algorithmic wage-setting, and discriminatory lending, according to a press release.
The move comes after significant shifts within the CFPB. Petersen resigned from her post as acting enforcement director in June 2025, stating that the CFPB leadership under President Donald Trump “has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way.” Her departure followed that of the CFPB’s enforcement and supervision chiefs, who stepped down amid the administration’s efforts to reshape the agency. Halperin and Mikkilineni also departed the CFPB shortly after the commencement of Trump’s second term, as reported by Bloomberg.
In statements, the founding partners emphasized their commitment to combating corporate overreach. “We believe litigation is critical to pushing back against corporate abuse,” Halperin stated. Petersen added, “We are proud to take up the fight to defend working people.” Mikkilineni underscored the current challenges, noting, “Consumer rights, civil rights and workers’ rights are all under attack, and HPM will use every tool available to stop this onslaught in its tracks.”
Mikkilineni specifically highlighted the evolving nature of financial abuses, particularly those powered by technology. She pointed to algorithmic wage-setting as an example of sophisticated financial misconduct that HPM will address. “We saw old school predatory financial models morph into a particular set of technologies, and I think they’re going to go through another morphing now that AI can make all of that more powerful, more seamless, and frankly less transparent to the consumer,” Mikkilineni explained. She expressed skepticism about the likelihood of substantial federal government intervention in these emerging technological areas, underscoring the need for private legal action.
The establishment of HPM by these former CFPB leaders represents a significant development in the landscape of consumer advocacy, bringing seasoned enforcement expertise to bear on pressing issues affecting vulnerable populations.
