Question: What makes an in-house counsel successful?
The importance of establishing trusted relationships with key business and compliance partners are very important. Many times, working with those partners on a specific project and taking the time to get to know not only their line of business, but also their hobbies and interests, will cement the way to an internal network of people that you can rely on in a pinch down the road. For instance, when you need information or an understanding of a business or compliance process for a regulatory ask or defense strategy, those people will be invaluable and more willing to quickly help you (or at least pointing you in the right direction) to get the job done efficiently. Those relationships, along with institutional knowledge about the business and how it operates, are the building blocks that help in-house counsel in providing the most effective and comprehensive legal advice to a company.
Question: What do you wish you knew about the practice of law as a more junior attorney?
I started out as a litigation paralegal, so I was able to work on junior attorney level tasks under the supervision of more senior attorneys in order to gain valuable insight into the day to day aspects of law practice very early in my career. When I finished law school and bridged the gap to become an attorney, I was able to use those practical skills for the part of my practice which involved the litigation of securities broker dealer disciplinary matters. While I had good foundation in those respects, my years of experience as a regulator, and later as in-house counsel, have shown me that practicing law is more than just “the law.” Business considerations of clients are central to this practice and junior attorneys would benefit from more in-depth exposure to those business considerations as part of their early development.
Question: How is in-house practice different from being in private practice/what challenges are unique to in-house?
I think one of the biggest challenges to in-house practice is servicing a large number of clients within any given organization and with a high volume of legal issues presented. In addition, in house practice demands that a multitude of business partners are regularly updated on constantly evolving legal matters while business is ongoing, with in depth legal issues being handled by outside counsel due to those volume demands. As in-house counsel, balancing those demands can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time. Shifting into private practice, I am excited to leverage my in-house experience to efficiently drill down on legal issues that clients present.
Question: What brought you back to law firm practice?
As a former regulator and in-house counsel, going into private practice for the first time was the next logical step in developing and rounding out my career as an attorney.
Question: What trends do you see coming in the financial regulatory space?
With the continuation of COVID and the related increased use of internet-based financial platforms, Cybersecurity has been a regulatory focus in the securities industry. FINRA noted this focus in its 2021 Report on FINRA’s Examination and Risk Monitoring Program, has issued Regulatory Notice 21-18 regarding online account takeover attempts, and has issued Regulatory Notice 21-14 regarding the observed recent increase in instant ACH funds abuse in the opening of online brokerage accounts. In what appears to be another focus area for FINRA for this year, it issued Regulatory Notice 21-29 to remind member firms of their obligations in supervising functions that are outsourced to third-party vendors. Given these multiple notices on Cybersecurity and the reminder regarding the supervision of third-party vendors, my opinion is that we will see these areas as a continuing regulatory focus now and in the future.
