Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced today that Susan Light, a highly regarded securities regulatory enforcement leader, has joined the firm as a partner in its Financial Services practice in New York.
As senior vice president and chief counsel in the Enforcement department of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Light supervised numerous regulatory investigations, negotiations of penalties and sanctions, multimillion-dollar settlements, and a range of high-profile disciplinary hearings. These included FINRA rules and federal securities laws regarding fraud, money laundering and stock manipulation.
Light co-designed the organizational structure and procedures for the FINRA Enforcement department when the agency was created in 2007 as the largest non-governmental regulatory organization for securities brokers and dealers in the United States. Prior to her work at FINRA, she served as senior vice president of Enforcement for New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) regulation.
“Katten guides clients through all aspects of regulatory compliance,” said Katten Chairman Roger P. Furey. “Sue’s deep understanding of enforcement work combined with her many years of hands-on experience providing regulatory oversight will greatly enhance our reputation for excellencein this space.”
In her role at FINRA, Light worked closely with senior leaders at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NYSE, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and exchanges and regulators.During her tenure, she spearheaded enforcement initiatives to address crowdfunding, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency.
As a leader at FINRA and the NYSE, Light managed as many as 60 attorneys and investigators and negotiated dozens of global settlements with the SEC, US Attorneys’ Offices, MSRB, state regulators and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury. Additionally, she partnered with foreign regulators on investigations into cross-national Ponzi schemes, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on investigations of improper tax dividends, with the DTCC on investigations of penny stock fraud and market manipulation and with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on managed futures alternative investments investigations.
“Sue’s institutional knowledge of SEC and FINRA rules and regulations will be an invaluable resource for our clients seeking to address complex legal and regulatory issues and avoid problems before they occur,” said Lance A. Zinman, global co-chair of Katten’s Financial Services practice.“We are thrilled to welcome her to our team.”
Light began her legal career as a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, where she tried to verdict more than 50 felony cases and supervised the investigations and prosecutions of violent crimes.
A frequent panelist at legal and financial services conferences, Light also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Securities Operations & Custody and the Journal of Financial Compliance.
Light will participate in Katten’s annual Financial Services Litigation Symposium on October 2 in New York, discussing recent trends and developments in SEC regulation and emerging enforcement priorities. She will speak on the Securities Enforcement and Litigation panel.
Katten is a full-service law firm with more than 600 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include corporate, financial services, insolvency and restructuring, litigation, real estate, environmental and workplace safety, commercial finance, intellectual property, structured finance and securitization, and trusts and estates. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, including a third of the Fortune 100, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit www.kattenlaw.com.
