New York – Sidley is pleased to announce that Ian McGinley has joined the firm as a Securities Enforcement and Regulatory partner in the Regulatory and Enforcement practice group in New York. Mr. McGinley was most recently the Director of Enforcement for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). At Sidley, he will focus on regulatory enforcement and white-collar criminal defense, with a particular emphasis on commodities and securities laws. He will also advise clients in civil and criminal matters involving digital assets.
As the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement, Mr. McGinley served as the head enforcement official in the United States tasked with investigating and prosecuting violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. He supervised approximately 200 employees, including attorneys, forensic economists, surveillance analysts, and staff located in New York, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Chicago. Under Mr. McGinley’s leadership, the CFTC brought cases in traditional and emerging areas, such as insider trading and voluntary carbon markets; created task forces focused on cybersecurity and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence; and reorganized and consolidated the Division of Enforcement’s analytical units to strengthen the agency’s ability to detect misconduct.
Prior to the CFTC, Mr. McGinley served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York for over a decade, where he was Co-Chief of the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, a senior member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, and Chief of the Narcotics Unit. In his role as Co-Chief of Complex Frauds and Cybercrime, he oversaw a wide variety of matters involving sophisticated financial frauds, cybercrime, cryptocurrency fraud, healthcare fraud, tax fraud, and FCPA violations. Earlier in his career at SDNY, he investigated and prosecuted cases involving insider trading, market manipulation, sanctions violations, and terrorism. During his time at the Department of Justice, he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the Federal Drug Agents Foundation’s True American Hero Award, and was named Federal Prosecutor of the Year in 2015 by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation.
Mr. McGinley has also practiced as a litigation and white-collar partner in private practice and clerked for The Honorable Gene E.K. Pratter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“Ian is one of the few former CFTC Directors of Enforcement in private practice, and his experience enables him to provide advice to clients facing complex regulatory and criminal matters involving commodities, cryptocurrency, futures, and swaps,” said Yvette Ostolaza, Chair of Sidley’s Management Committee. “Ian will also collaborate with lawyers across our global energy practice, working closely with clients who trade energy derivatives.”
“Ian is well respected across government agencies, including the CFTC, DOJ, SEC, FINRA, DEA, and OFAC,” said Stephen Cohen, Leader of Sidley’s Global Regulatory and Enforcement practice. “He is a great match with our existing securities enforcement and regulatory team and will help broaden our capabilities for clients both in New York and globally. We are excited to welcome him to the firm.”
Sidley’s Securities Enforcement and Regulatory group counsels and defends clients involved in all aspects of the global capital markets, from major Wall Street firms and leading public companies to prominent investment advisers and senior executives. We defend our clients in investigations by the SEC, CFTC, DOJ, state attorneys general, the UK FCA, other federal and state civil regulators, and self-regulatory agencies such as FINRA and NYSE. We assist clients during regulatory examinations and conduct internal investigations of sensitive matters. We regularly advise our clients on a wide range of complex securities and commodities compliance-related matters, including structuring trades or complex derivative transactions and acquiring or disposing of regulated entities.
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