Ernesto Lanza has rejoined Ballard Spahr as of counsel to the firm’s national finance department and public finance group after almost three years at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“With some transitions in leadership both at the MSRB the year earlier and at the Commission’s OMS Office, the time seemed right to say, ‘hey, I do want to kind of finish off my career in private practice working with market participants I've worked with in the past, bringing together both my transactional experience and regulatory experience to help those market participants encounter the market as it's been transitioning over the last few years,'” Lanza said.
Lanza will bring his almost 30 years of legal experience in the municipal market in advising his broker-dealer, municipal advisor, investor and other industry vendor clients on issues such as Dodd-Frank requirements and dealing with regulatory agencies.
Before serving as attorney-advisor and acting director for the Office of Municipal Securities, Lanza worked for a number of law firms including Clark Hill from 2016-2019 and Greenberg Traurig from 2014-2016. He previously worked at Ballard from 1991-1996.
He was well known as one of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's leading legal authorities from 1997-2014, during some of which time he was deputy executive director. He has been credited for helping to create the board’s EMMA platform.
“Ballard Spahr is known throughout the country and the municipal securities industry for the strength of its finance and public finance practices and I’m proud to be a part of that again,” Lanza said. “I know the firm and its culture well, having practiced here before and having crossed paths with many exceptional Ballard Spahr lawyers while I was a regulator,” he added. “I couldn’t be happier about rejoining.”
Lanza came onto the Commission’s staff shortly after two amendments were added to its Rule15c2-12 in February 2019 and spent a lot of his initial time reaching out to market participants and speaking on the topic of disclosure at conferences. But his work at the Commission also dealt with looking at the Libor transition and wider efforts to provide more transparency to fixed-income markets.
“There were a lot of good, interesting issues that we were able to look at, some of them unique municipal marketplace, some of them were market wide,” Lanza said. “It's an ongoing affair and when it comes to regulation of marketplaces, things don't happen quickly; they take a lot of contemplation and process.”
Lanza said he feels that this move from the regulatory side is merely a different side of the same coin, and that his experience working with one side will deepen his expertise with another.
“One side doesn't exist without the other side,” Lanza said.
“His work in government provides him exceptional understanding of the policies and intentions behind the new regulatory regimes and the SEC’s likely approaches to enhanced enforcement,” the Ballard said in its release.
Lanza said he celebrates the challenges ahead and all industry-wide efforts to bring greater innovation to the muni market.
“Even though munis as compared to equities, may, from the general public point of view, seem to be a little sleepy, they're really not,” Lanza said. “There's lots going on under the hood that needs both legal and market understanding to make them all work going forward.”
“As we get deeper into the twenty-first century, is the muni market in the twenty-first century or not? And what is it going to take to get it there or to keep it there?,” Lanza said. “That’s involving both rules and practices and I think there will be a continuous look at how all the pieces fit together.”
His move to the private sector is being championed by muni market leaders.
“Ernie’s work as a regulator and in private practice has provided him with a level of experience that will be invaluable to our clients at a time when the regulatory environment is complex and the stakes are high,” said Teri Guarnaccia, co-leader of Ballard Spahr’s Public Finance Group and the firm’s Municipal Securities Regulation and Enforcement Team. “He is well-known and highly respected throughout the municipal securities industry. We’re delighted to have him back.”
“Ernie is an example of a superb public servant and excellent private sector lawyer who has benefited the entire market with his broad and deep experience," said Chuck Samuels, member at Mintz Levin and counsel to the National Association of Health & Educational Facilities Finance Authorities. "I am sure he will do great at Ballard and his many admirers wish him well. The entire market will still benefit from his services.”
“One person who is so multifaceted and understanding of our regulatory landscape that he's certainly somebody that we aren’t going to lose touch with at all,” said Emily Brock, director of the federal liaison center at the Government Finance Officers Association.
