Mr Kevin Foley > Katten > Chicago, United States > Lawyer Profile

Katten
525 WEST MONROE STREET
CHICAGO, IL 60661-3693
ILLINOIS
United States

Work Department

Financial Markets and Funds

Position

Kevin Foley is the compass financial services firms rely on in navigating the world of derivatives regulation. He helps the largest futures commission merchants as well as derivatives clearing organizations, proprietary trading firms and foreign exchanges comply with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the rules of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For more than 25 years, he has served as counsel to the Futures Industry Association, guiding the industry through transformative events like the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Kevin has earned wide respect in the industry for his experience, depth of knowledge and leadership on challenging issues. Clients know that he brings an encyclopedic understanding of the CEA and CFTC rules to his engagements. He knows the law, the regulatory purpose underlying specific rules and their enforcement history.

Earlier in his career, Kevin served for four years as chief counsel of the CFTC’s Division of Trading and Markets. That experience helps him to assume a regulator’s perspective, provide more comprehensive advice to his clients and craft effective arguments for relief, if necessary. For example, when conflicting US and UK regulatory requirements appeared to prevent US futures commission merchants from using customer securities to support those customers’ trading on UK markets, Kevin worked with the CFTC to obtain relief for his client.

Industry organizations consistently select Kevin to represent them on high-stakes policy matters. He advised on a study by the National Futures Association and Futures Industry Institute that developed recommendations for best practices in order entry and transmission of exchange-traded transactions. In 2012, he was recognized for his exemplary efforts on behalf of FIA in formulating the industry’s response to the Dodd-Frank legislation before the CFTC.

Memberships

He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Regulation of Futures and Derivatives Instruments; a member of the Business Conduct Committee of the National Futures Association; a former Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Futures Regulation Law Committee; and a former member of the Executive Committee of the Futures Industry Association,

Education

JD, Georgetown University Law Center BA, Georgetown University

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products

Katten has demonstrable experience advising on regulatory mandates, encompassing enforcement proceedings, CFTC investigations and litigation cases, associated with over-the-counter and exchange-traded derivatives products. Counting US and international investment banks, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms among its key roster of clients, the team has the capability to advise on futures, over-the-counter and structured products transactions. In the Chicago office, Lance Zinman is the global chair of the firm’s financial markets and funds department and Christian Kemnitz leads the financial markets litigation and enforcement group, while Washington DC-based Daniel Davis and New York’s Carl Kennedy co-chair the financial markets and regulation practice. Kennedy handles regulatory matters concerning the Dodd-Frank Act and New York-based Gary DeWaal is noted for his experience advising on exchange-traded derivatives and crypto-assets, while Chicago’s senior counsel Kevin Foley handles compliance issues associated with the CEA and the CFTC. In the firm’s New York office, Stephen Morris joined from Morgan Stanley in April 2022, and Ilene Froom arrived from Reed Smith LLP in July 2022.