Davis Polk Welcomes Leading Futures, Commodities and Derivatives Lawyer, Susan C. Ervin

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP today announced that Susan C. Ervin, a leading futures, commodities and derivatives lawyer, is joining the firm as a partner in the Washington DC office. The addition of Ms. Ervin provides Davis Polk’s world-class Financial Institutions Group with expanded expertise in futures, commodities and derivatives, including the soon-to-be regulated swaps market.

Susan C. Ervin

Ms. Ervin spent 15 years as an attorney for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the last 10 of which she served in a senior capacity as Deputy Director and Chief Counsel of the CFTC’s Division of Trading and Markets. In that capacity, Ms. Ervin was responsible for the legal aspects of the CFTC’s regulatory programs for exchanges, clearing organizations, futures commission merchants, commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors and other intermediaries. She left the CFTC at the end of 1997 to re-enter private practice, where she also advised on the derivatives activities of investment companies. In 2009, she returned to the public sector as an Attorney Fellow/Senior Advisor at the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she helped develop regulatory approaches to the derivatives markets.

“The combination of our long-tenured financial regulatory lawyers and our strategic lateral hires has positioned Davis Polk as the go-to firm for leading financial institutions on their Dodd-Frank Act implementation work,” said Thomas J. Reid, Davis Polk’s managing partner. “Susan has a unique and powerful mix of direct regulatory and private practice experience with which to guide our clients through the maze of futures, commodities and new swaps regulatory requirements. She will provide our Financial Institutions Group with unparalleled breadth of expertise at this pivotal juncture in financial regulation, and we are delighted to welcome her to the firm.”

Ms. Ervin said: “I am thrilled to be joining such a remarkable team of lawyers, who focus decades of regulatory and private sector experience on the most sophisticated derivatives transactions. I look forward to working with my new colleagues as we help clients to navigate the uncharted waters of derivatives regulation.”

About Susan C. Ervin. Ms. Ervin is among the leading regulatory lawyers in the U.S. From 1983 to 1997, she was an attorney with the CFTC in Washington. She provided advice on the full range of legal and regulatory issues relevant to exchanges, clearing organizations, future commission merchants, introducing brokers, money managers, commodity pool operators and trading advisors, and helped to design regulatory approaches to the developing markets for swaps and other over-the-counter derivative products. She left the CFTC at the end of 1997 for private practice, where she spent 12 years. In 2009, she joined the SEC as an Attorney Fellow/Senior Advisor. Ms. Ervin is the incoming Chair of the Derivatives and Futures Law Committee of the American Bar Association and a past Chair of the Futures and Derivatives Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

About Davis Polk’s Financial Institutions Group. Davis Polk has one of the world’s most prominent financial institutions practices. The firm’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG) represents many of the most important U.S. and non-U.S. banks, broker-dealers/FCMs, insurance companies, trading markets and investment managers. The firm is at the forefront of advising financial institutions on Dodd-Frank Act regulatory implementation issues, and has been engaged as outside counsel on Dodd-Frank matters by all six of the largest U.S. banking organizations, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), many of the largest foreign banks with operations in the United States and numerous other financial institutions.

About Davis Polk.Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is a global law firm. For over 160 years, its lawyers have advised industry-leading companies and global financial institutions on their most challenging legal and business matters. Davis Polk ranks among the world’s preeminent law firms across the entire range of its practice, which spans such areas as capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, credit, litigation, private equity, tax, financial regulation, investment management, insolvency and restructuring, executive compensation, intellectual property, real estate and trusts and estates. The firm has more than 750 lawyers in offices in New York, Menlo Park, CA, Washington DC, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. Davis Polk operates in Hong Kong as Davis Polk & Wardwell, Hong Kong Solicitors, an affiliate of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. For more information: http://www.davispolk.com.