March 9, 2015
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that Brian O’Keefe joins the firm’s New York office as an of counsel. He recently served as a Deputy Director at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington, D.C., where he was a member of the Division of Clearing and Risk, managing a team of attorneys and analysts responsible for the regulation and compliance of derivatives market participants. At Gibson Dunn, O’Keefe will represent financial institutions focusing on derivatives regulatory and policy work.
With over 15 years of experience in the financial markets, O’Keefe is a senior regulatory, compliance and legal executive with extensive experience with clearinghouses, swap dealers, end-users, insurers, custodians, data repositories and regulators.
While at the CFTC, he was responsible for rulemakings and analysis relating to the mandatory clearing of derivatives products in all asset classes. In addition, he oversaw compliance with the exceptions and exemptions to those requirements, and evaluated requests from market participants for additional relief. He also analyzed international clearinghouse applications to be registered as “derivatives clearing organizations” by the Commission; evaluated new product submissions by clearinghouses; analyzed swap dealer and reporting party data for compliance; and coordinated with domestic and international regulators regarding polices targeting specific product offerings, clearinghouse rules and risk-related issues.
Prior, O’Keefe was with Standard & Poor’s in New York, where he was a Managing Director in the US Structured Credit Practice, managing a team responsible for the analysis of credit derivative and structured finance transactions. Before that, O’Keefe was a practicing attorney with international law firms in New York, where his practice focused on regulatory matters and capital markets, securitizations and derivatives transactions. He started his career with Ernst & Young as a senior consultant in the US Cash Management Practice.
O’Keefe graduated magna cum laude in 1994 from University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a member of Order of Coif and Moot Court Board.