Chief Legal Officer, IEX Group, Inc.
Rachel Barnett oversees all legal and compliance matters for IEX Group, Inc. She is an experienced lawyer who has held a wide variety of roles as in-house General Counsel and within private practice.
Rachel joined IEX from Brooks Brothers where she served as General Counsel and Secretary overseeing its global legal affairs. She played a critical role selling America's oldest retail brand after it had filed for bankruptcy during the COVID pandemic. Before Brooks Brothers in 2019, Rachel was a member of the Board of Directors and General Counsel of Travelzoo, a publicly traded global media company and online marketplace for travel deals and experiences.
Prior to going in-house, Rachel worked as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP where she specialized in litigation matters, including merger and acquisition litigation, shareholder derivative lawsuits and securities fraud class actions at both the trial court and appellate levels.
Rachel is a current Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School where she also earned her Juris Doctor degree. She is member of the bar in both New York and Delaware and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University.
Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Financial Technology, Georgetown Law
Chris Brummer is the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Financial Technology at Georgetown University Law Center and the Faculty Director of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law. As a professor, advisor, board member and advocate, Chris has lent his expertise to policymakers, founders, startups, and nonprofits around the world grappling with some of the most challenging puzzles facing innovation, regulation, and inclusion. His work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Marketwatch, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Yahoo Money, Roll Call, Cointelegraph, and Coin Desk, among others.
Chris’s public service and volunteer work extend across government. In addition to serving as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Subcommittee on Virtual Currencies and the Consultative Working Group for the European Securities and Markets Authority’s Financial Innovation Standing Committee, Chris has served as a member of the National Adjudicatory Council of FINRA. Most recently, he served as a member of the Biden-Harris Transition team, assisting in leading work streams relating to financial technology, racial equity and systemic risk for the Treasury ART. He is currently the Co-Chair of CNAS Task Force on FinTech, Crypto, and National Security.
A frequent speaker and lecturer, Chris was asked to deliver the keynote speech for the SEC’s Black History celebration in 2021, FinCEN’s Black History celebration in 2022, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s celebration in 2023.
Chris graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis, holds a J.D. with honors from Columbia Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is the author or editor of several books, including Cryptoassets: Legal, Regulatory and Monetary Perspectives and Fintech Law in a Nutshell.
Chris is the host of CQ Roll Call’s Fintech Beat podcast, and founder of Washington DC’s Fintech Week, an annual free event for the public.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Patrick Daugherty is a senior corporate and securities law partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, based in Chicago. He also is an adjunct professor of Cornell Law School, where he teaches in residence each Fall Term.
Mr. Daugherty is a member of the Bar in New York, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Michigan and Illinois. Credentialing organizations have named him “Lawyer of the Year” in both Michigan (2007) and Illinois (2022). A graduate of Northwestern University and of Cornell Law School (Class of 1981), he clerked for SDNY Chief Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon for a year before entering private practice. Mr. Daugherty also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989. An Emeritus Member of the American Law Institute, he is the author, co-author or editor of several books and many articles on securities regulation and new financial products.
Mr. Daugherty believes that he was the first lawyer inside the SEC to join the Federalist Society when he became a member in the late 1980s. A mainstay of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter, at the national level of the Society he serves on the Executive Committee for the Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group.
Partner, WilmerHale
William McLucas joined the firm after serving for more than eight years as Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission—longer than any other Enforcement Division Director in Commission history. He represents public companies, investment banks, accounting firms and advisors to mutual funds facing a variety of corporate and market crises, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
In 1977, Mr. McLucas joined the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement. He led the Division's Staff in numerous high-profile investigations and landmark enforcement actions, including hundreds of insider trading cases and numerous inquiries and proceedings involving public companies, accounting firms, investment banks, and participants in the municipal securities markets.
In addition, Mr. McLucas has overseen numerous audit committee and special committee inquiries, and has also represented numerous corporate executives and directors in connection with Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
Associate, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Brian A. Richman is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He practices in the firm’s Litigation Department, and is a member of the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Administrative Law and Regulatory practice groups.
Mr. Richman represents clients in high-stakes appellate, administrative law, and litigation matters. His practice includes litigating cutting-edge constitutional and administrative law issues, challenging agency rulemakings, and defending against government enforcement actions, along with other complex litigation matters. He has extensive experience in the financial services sector.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Richman clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also practiced at a New York law firm, where he focused on commercial litigation and white collar defense and investigations. Mr. Richman is a former securities compliance officer at Goldman Sachs, and has handled numerous regulatory matters involving the SEC, CFTC, FERC, FINRA, and the Federal Reserve.
Mr. Richman received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was a lead editor on the Yale Journal on Regulation, and a semi-finalist in both the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals and Thomas Swan Barristers’ Union Mock Trial Competition. In 2011, Mr. Richman graduated from Cornell University with a B.S., with honors, in Policy Analysis and Management.
Mr. Richman is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. He is also admitted to the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and D.C. Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Chief Legal Officer, IEX Group, Inc.
Rachel Barnett oversees all legal and compliance matters for IEX Group, Inc. She is an experienced lawyer who has held a wide variety of roles as in-house General Counsel and within private practice.
Rachel joined IEX from Brooks Brothers where she served as General Counsel and Secretary overseeing its global legal affairs. She played a critical role selling America's oldest retail brand after it had filed for bankruptcy during the COVID pandemic. Before Brooks Brothers in 2019, Rachel was a member of the Board of Directors and General Counsel of Travelzoo, a publicly traded global media company and online marketplace for travel deals and experiences.
Prior to going in-house, Rachel worked as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP where she specialized in litigation matters, including merger and acquisition litigation, shareholder derivative lawsuits and securities fraud class actions at both the trial court and appellate levels.
Rachel is a current Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School where she also earned her Juris Doctor degree. She is member of the bar in both New York and Delaware and received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University.
Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Financial Technology, Georgetown Law
Chris Brummer is the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Financial Technology at Georgetown University Law Center and the Faculty Director of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law. As a professor, advisor, board member and advocate, Chris has lent his expertise to policymakers, founders, startups, and nonprofits around the world grappling with some of the most challenging puzzles facing innovation, regulation, and inclusion. His work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Marketwatch, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Yahoo Money, Roll Call, Cointelegraph, and Coin Desk, among others.
Chris’s public service and volunteer work extend across government. In addition to serving as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Subcommittee on Virtual Currencies and the Consultative Working Group for the European Securities and Markets Authority’s Financial Innovation Standing Committee, Chris has served as a member of the National Adjudicatory Council of FINRA. Most recently, he served as a member of the Biden-Harris Transition team, assisting in leading work streams relating to financial technology, racial equity and systemic risk for the Treasury ART. He is currently the Co-Chair of CNAS Task Force on FinTech, Crypto, and National Security.
A frequent speaker and lecturer, Chris was asked to deliver the keynote speech for the SEC’s Black History celebration in 2021, FinCEN’s Black History celebration in 2022, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s celebration in 2023.
Chris graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis, holds a J.D. with honors from Columbia Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is the author or editor of several books, including Cryptoassets: Legal, Regulatory and Monetary Perspectives and Fintech Law in a Nutshell.
Chris is the host of CQ Roll Call’s Fintech Beat podcast, and founder of Washington DC’s Fintech Week, an annual free event for the public.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Patrick Daugherty is a senior corporate and securities law partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, based in Chicago. He also is an adjunct professor of Cornell Law School, where he teaches in residence each Fall Term.
Mr. Daugherty is a member of the Bar in New York, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Michigan and Illinois. Credentialing organizations have named him “Lawyer of the Year” in both Michigan (2007) and Illinois (2022). A graduate of Northwestern University and of Cornell Law School (Class of 1981), he clerked for SDNY Chief Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon for a year before entering private practice. Mr. Daugherty also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989. An Emeritus Member of the American Law Institute, he is the author, co-author or editor of several books and many articles on securities regulation and new financial products.
Mr. Daugherty believes that he was the first lawyer inside the SEC to join the Federalist Society when he became a member in the late 1980s. A mainstay of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter, at the national level of the Society he serves on the Executive Committee for the Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group.
Partner, WilmerHale
William McLucas joined the firm after serving for more than eight years as Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission—longer than any other Enforcement Division Director in Commission history. He represents public companies, investment banks, accounting firms and advisors to mutual funds facing a variety of corporate and market crises, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
In 1977, Mr. McLucas joined the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement. He led the Division's Staff in numerous high-profile investigations and landmark enforcement actions, including hundreds of insider trading cases and numerous inquiries and proceedings involving public companies, accounting firms, investment banks, and participants in the municipal securities markets.
In addition, Mr. McLucas has overseen numerous audit committee and special committee inquiries, and has also represented numerous corporate executives and directors in connection with Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.
Associate, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Brian A. Richman is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He practices in the firm’s Litigation Department, and is a member of the Appellate and Constitutional Law and Administrative Law and Regulatory practice groups.
Mr. Richman represents clients in high-stakes appellate, administrative law, and litigation matters. His practice includes litigating cutting-edge constitutional and administrative law issues, challenging agency rulemakings, and defending against government enforcement actions, along with other complex litigation matters. He has extensive experience in the financial services sector.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Richman clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also practiced at a New York law firm, where he focused on commercial litigation and white collar defense and investigations. Mr. Richman is a former securities compliance officer at Goldman Sachs, and has handled numerous regulatory matters involving the SEC, CFTC, FERC, FINRA, and the Federal Reserve.
Mr. Richman received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was a lead editor on the Yale Journal on Regulation, and a semi-finalist in both the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals and Thomas Swan Barristers’ Union Mock Trial Competition. In 2011, Mr. Richman graduated from Cornell University with a B.S., with honors, in Policy Analysis and Management.
Mr. Richman is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. He is also admitted to the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and D.C. Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Michael Edney defends executives and corporations in criminal prosecutions and agency enforcement actions, successfully challenging numerous regulatory agencies—from the Justice Department to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others—against federal government overreach. Many of the regulations Mike has convinced the courts to reverse would have arbitrarily ended hundreds of businesses absent the courts’ intervention. He has also successfully challenged government decisions to break contracts and end projects in cooperation with private industry.
In addition to his criminal defense practice, Mike regularly brings actions challenging government agency regulations as illegal and unconstitutional before they are enforced. He has sued government agencies and reversed their attempted regulations seeking to upend the energy, financial, and tobacco industries.
His civil litigation practice spans beyond anti-regulatory suits. He has brought some of the leading First Amendment cases in the country. On behalf of The Washington Free Beacon, he vindicated the publication’s First Amendment right to access sealed court records before the Arizona Supreme Court. He has defended corporations in bet-the-company litigation concerning securities, environmental, employment, and fair housing. He has represented states at the request of their governors. He has repeatedly served as counsel for former Attorneys General of the United States when they appear as amici curiae before the Supreme Court.
Mike also represents clients on numerous national security matters, including the Classified Information Procedures Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, government cybersecurity investigations into companies regarded as critical national infrastructure, the handling of classified information by government contractors, and prepublication review of books authored by former government officials for sensitive and classified information.
His private practice draws from a half decade of prior government service. During the administration of former President George W. Bush, he served as deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council at the White House and in the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice, where he helped the administration address many legal issues pertaining to the United States' post-9/11 campaign against terrorism.
Before joining Morgan Lewis, Mike was a litigation partner at another global law firm.
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Aristotle International
The Honorable David M. Mason is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Aristotle. He assists campaigns, PACs, and political parties in maximizing their effectiveness while complying with federal and state regulatory requirements.
Mr. Mason served as Commissioner and Chairman (2002 and 2008) of the Federal Election Commission from 1998 until 2008, a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position.
President Reagan appointed Mason as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs) where he was instrumental in working with Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and Representative Dick Armey in securing passage of base closing legislation.
Commissioner Mason has testified before Congress over 20 times, addressed international conferences on elections and appeared in or wrote for scores of American print and broadcast media outlets. He is an honors graduate of Claremont McKenna College in Government, graduated with highest honors from Concord Law School and is a member of the California Bar.
Deputy General Counsel, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Connor Raso serves as acting deputy general counsel at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He is a contributor to the Brookings' Series on Regulatory Process and Perspective as part of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets.
From 2014-2022 Mr. Raso Served as Special Senior Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Russell G. Ryan, a former assistant director of enforcement at the SEC, is now Senior Litigation Counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Michael Edney defends executives and corporations in criminal prosecutions and agency enforcement actions, successfully challenging numerous regulatory agencies—from the Justice Department to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others—against federal government overreach. Many of the regulations Mike has convinced the courts to reverse would have arbitrarily ended hundreds of businesses absent the courts’ intervention. He has also successfully challenged government decisions to break contracts and end projects in cooperation with private industry.
In addition to his criminal defense practice, Mike regularly brings actions challenging government agency regulations as illegal and unconstitutional before they are enforced. He has sued government agencies and reversed their attempted regulations seeking to upend the energy, financial, and tobacco industries.
His civil litigation practice spans beyond anti-regulatory suits. He has brought some of the leading First Amendment cases in the country. On behalf of The Washington Free Beacon, he vindicated the publication’s First Amendment right to access sealed court records before the Arizona Supreme Court. He has defended corporations in bet-the-company litigation concerning securities, environmental, employment, and fair housing. He has represented states at the request of their governors. He has repeatedly served as counsel for former Attorneys General of the United States when they appear as amici curiae before the Supreme Court.
Mike also represents clients on numerous national security matters, including the Classified Information Procedures Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, government cybersecurity investigations into companies regarded as critical national infrastructure, the handling of classified information by government contractors, and prepublication review of books authored by former government officials for sensitive and classified information.
His private practice draws from a half decade of prior government service. During the administration of former President George W. Bush, he served as deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council at the White House and in the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice, where he helped the administration address many legal issues pertaining to the United States' post-9/11 campaign against terrorism.
Before joining Morgan Lewis, Mike was a litigation partner at another global law firm.
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Aristotle International
The Honorable David M. Mason is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Aristotle. He assists campaigns, PACs, and political parties in maximizing their effectiveness while complying with federal and state regulatory requirements.
Mr. Mason served as Commissioner and Chairman (2002 and 2008) of the Federal Election Commission from 1998 until 2008, a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position.
President Reagan appointed Mason as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs) where he was instrumental in working with Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and Representative Dick Armey in securing passage of base closing legislation.
Commissioner Mason has testified before Congress over 20 times, addressed international conferences on elections and appeared in or wrote for scores of American print and broadcast media outlets. He is an honors graduate of Claremont McKenna College in Government, graduated with highest honors from Concord Law School and is a member of the California Bar.
Deputy General Counsel, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Connor Raso serves as acting deputy general counsel at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He is a contributor to the Brookings' Series on Regulatory Process and Perspective as part of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets.
From 2014-2022 Mr. Raso Served as Special Senior Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Russell G. Ryan, a former assistant director of enforcement at the SEC, is now Senior Litigation Counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
Retired, Winston & Strawn LLP
Jerry Loeser is of counsel in the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn, and his practice focuses on banking regulation. He has extensive experience in counseling financial services clients on, among other things, bank acquisitions, privacy, financial modernization, the USA PATRIOT Act, Basel II and III, lending limits, capital, trust, affiliate transactions, and Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and CFPB regulations.
Prior to working at large corporate law firms, Jerry was chief regulatory and compliance counsel for Comerica Bank, where he also served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel and as general counsel of its retail bank division. Before that, he served as chief regulatory in-house counsel at Wells Fargo & Co. Jerry began his legal career advising the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.
Executive in Residence, Wake Forest University School of Business
John Allison is an Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business. He is a member of the Cato Institute’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Allison was president and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by theHarvard Business Reviewas one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.
Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from theAmerican Banker. He is the author of The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy’s Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In addition, he is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Allison is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees.
Former CEO, Wells Fargo
Mr. Richard M. Kovacevich, also known as Dick, serves as Vice President at San Francisco Symphony. Mr. Kovacevich serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Hudson Executive Capital LP. He served as the Chief Executive Officer at Wells Fargo & Company from November 1998 to June 2007 and also served as its President from November 1998 to August 1, 2005. Mr. Kovacevich served as the Chief Executive Officer of Norwest Corp. from January 1993 to November 1998 and as its Chief Operating Officer since 1989. He joined Norwest in March 1986, as Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Norwest Banking Group. Mr. Kovacevich served as the President of Norwest Corporation from January 1993 to January 1997. Prior to Norwest, he served as a Group Executive of the Policy Committee of CitiCorp. and Division General Manager at General Mills. Mr. Kovacevich served as the President of The Financial Services Roundtable and serves as its Co-Chairman of Commission to Enhance Competitiveness. He served as the Chairman of the Board at Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota, National Association. Mr. Kovacevich served as the Chairman of Wells Fargo Bank, National Association. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Wells Fargo & Company from August 2005 to December 30, 2009. Mr. Kovacevich served as the Chairman of Norwest Corp. from May 1995 to November 1998. He serves as Vice Chairman of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Kovacevich served as the Vice Chairman of the American Bankers Council. He has been a Director of Norwest Corporation since 1986. He has been Director of Theranos, Inc. since May 12, 2016 and previously served as Director of Theranos, Inc. since July 29, 2013. He serves as an Independent Director of Cargill, Incorporated. Mr. Kovacevich serves as a Director of The Clearing House LLC. He served as a Director at Cisco Systems, Inc. since January 19, 2005 until November 19, 2013. Mr. Kovacevich served as a Director of Wells Fargo & Company from 1986 to December 30, 2009. He served as an Independent Director of Target Corp. from 1996 to December 31, 2010. Mr. Kovacevich serves as a Member of The Federal Reserve's Federal Advisory Council, California Business Roundtable and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth. He graduated from Stanford University where he earned his MBA and his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Industrial Engineering.
Research Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Timothy Massad is currently a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School and a consultant on financial regulatory and fintech issues.
Mr. Massad served as Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2014-2017. Under his leadership, the agency implemented the Dodd Frank reforms of the over-the-counter swaps market and harmonized many aspects of cross-border regulation, including reaching a landmark agreement with the European Union on clearinghouse oversight. The agency also declared virtual currencies to be commodities, introduced reforms to address automated trading and strengthened cybersecurity protections.
Previously, Mr. Massad served as the Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the principal U.S. governmental response to the 2008 financial crisis. During his tenure, Treasury recovered more on all the crisis investments than was disbursed. Mr. Massad was with the Treasury from 2009 to 2014 and also served as a counselor to the Treasury Secretary.
Prior to his government service, Mr. Massad was a partner in the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP. His practice included corporate finance, derivatives and advising boards of directors. He managed the firm’s Hong Kong office from 1998 to 2002 and represented governments and corporations on transactions throughout Asia. Mr. Massad was also one of a small group of lawyers who drafted the original ISDA standard agreements for swaps.
Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP
The Honorable Paul J. Ray is currently Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP where he advises clients on regulatory opportunities and challenges and helps them formulate and execute advocacy strategies for their regulatory policy priorities before the executive branch and Congress.
During the first Trump Administration, Paul held various senior positions at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, including as acting, and then Senate-confirmed, head of the office. As OIRA Administrator (the "regulations czar"), Paul supervised the review of hundreds of regulations from across the government, drafted numerous executive orders governing the regulatory process, and led the Administration’s regulatory reform effort. As a result of this experience, Paul is well-positioned to help clients understand and achieve regulatory policy priorities in the context of the government’s regulatory agenda and ongoing reform efforts.
Most recently, Paul was also the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In that role, he supervised the formulation of the Foundation’s economic and regulatory policy recommendations and provided technical assistance to congressional committees and staff regarding legislative changes to the regulatory process. In addition to his role at The Heritage Foundation, Paul also served as a Senior Advisor at a strategic advisory firm. Before his time in government, Paul practiced law at a law firm in Washington, specializing in administrative law matters.
Prior to his role at the White House, Paul was Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There he led departmental efforts in high-profile rulemakings and helped formulate the Department’s legal positions and strategy.
Paul served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and as a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Paul is a thought leader in the conservative legal movement and is a frequent commentator and speaker on regulatory policy and reform matters, including at law schools, professional gatherings, and other venues. He is the Chairman of Innovations in Peacebuilding International and the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer at the Hillsdale College School of Government.
The SEC and Cryptocurrency
Rachel Barnett, Chris Brummer, Patrick Daugherty, William McLucas, Brian Richman
This event will survey the SEC's current involvement in the cryptocurrency field. The conversation will...
The SEC and Cryptocurrency
Rachel Barnett, Chris Brummer, Patrick Daugherty, William McLucas, Brian Richman
This event will survey the SEC's current involvement in the cryptocurrency field. The conversation will...
Topics
The Fed Still Can’t Legally Fund the CFPB
An expanded version of this article can be found at Law & Liberty. The funding...
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Preventing Fraud on P2P Electronic Payment Networks: What Can We Learn From Montesquieu?
As a former staff member for the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, I spent...
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The Fed Has No Earnings to Send to the CFPB
The relevant text of the Dodd-Frank Act is clear: “Each year (or quarter of such...
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Chairman Powell and the Fed’s Limits
This post originally appeared at the American Institute for Economic Research. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome...
Discussing Clarke v. CFTC: The Case of PredictIt & the CFTC's No-Action Letter
Michael J. Edney, David M. Mason, Connor Raso, Russell G. Ryan
In July of 2023, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's decision in Clarke v....
Discussing Clarke v. CFTC: The Case of PredictIt & the CFTC's No-Action Letter
Michael J. Edney, David M. Mason, Connor Raso, Russell G. Ryan
In July of 2023, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's decision in Clarke v....
Surprise, the Only Constant
Julius L. Loeser
Federalist Society Review, Volume 25
A review of Alex Pollock & Howard Adler, Surprised Again! The COVID Crisis and the...
Regulation and Red Tape: Tax Inversions: Unpacking the Pfizer Case
John A. Allison, Richard M. Kovacevich, Timothy G. Massad, Paul J. Ray
A Regulatory Transparency Project Fourth Branch Video
In 2014, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer initiated a restructuring, only to encounter impediments from the...