Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange Forum

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Anonymous User
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Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 12, 2019 1:59 pm

I do a lot of white collar/investigations work related to financial services/markets, and I often see job postings for enforcement counsel jobs at self-regulatory organizations and big exchanges like FINRA, NFA, CME, ICE (NYSE), etc. Based on Glassdoor they generally seem to pay about the same as or a bit more than enforcement counsel roles at SEC/CFTC ($140k+), and they’re (all?) nonprofits, so you could theoretically do PAYE+PSLF.

Does anyone have more details about what these jobs are like? Obviously they involve essentially no actual litigation (fine for me). What can people go on to do after?

I’m sure it varies based on the organization, but any data points would be interesting.

Anonymous User
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Re: Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 14, 2019 11:02 am

Weekday bump to see if anyone has experience with these organizations.

Anonymous User
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Re: Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:30 pm

I am in enforcement at a federal regulator so I don’t have the exact perspective you are looking for. However, I have interacted with enforcement lawyers at SROs so I have some thoughts.

Just FYI, I am not sure you are right about the SROs paying more. Certainly in the markets where I would think most SRO enforcement is located the SEC and CFTC would pay at least $140k if not more. Also remember federal benefits are very good.

On the substance of the jobs, you should keep in mind that the jurisdiction of the SROs is inherently more limited than the federal regulators. The SROs can generally only investigate and bring an action concerning conduct on the exchange/by their members, etc. If an investigation goes beyond that (say, NYSE discovers someone engaged in manipulation on NYSE is also misbehaving off of the exchange) there is nothing they can do besides refer it to someone else. That might be frustrating after a while. Also because of the limited jurisdiction I would suspect overall the cases are less varied. I think the work the SROs do is also generally speaking less sophisticated. And, as you mentioned, there won’t be any federal court litigation, which will be a negative for exit options I think.

As for exit options, they are likely to be less good/varied than from a federal regulator because the work is less varied/more limited. Check LinkedIn, but I would think there is a lot of moving into compliance at regulated entities or moving around within the SRO space. I do know some people who have gone from SROs to regulators.

Anonymous User
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Re: Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:44 pm

Oh, and CME and ICE are definitely not non-profits.

The Lsat Airbender

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Re: Enforcement Counsel at an SRO/Exchange

Post by The Lsat Airbender » Mon Oct 14, 2019 7:28 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Oh, and CME and ICE are definitely not non-profits.
Yeah, LJL at getting PSLF after working for a stock exchange.

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