WASHINGTON - Micah Green, a former president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and six others have moved to Steptoe & Johnson LLP's financial services practice here from Squire Patton Boggs.
Green joins Steptoe as a partner and will lead the firm's financial services practice and co-chair its government affairs & public policy group. He has been joined by: partners Carolyn Walsh and Matthew Kulkin, senior policy advisors Michael Dunn and Richard Shilts, and associates Mara Giorgio and Grace Kim, according to a news release from the firm.
"I felt it was a good time to make a move and reconnect with a Washington-based firm with a strong history in the regulatory space," Green told The Bond Buyer.
In the municipal bond area, Steptoe has lawyers with expertise in pay-to-play issues and the firm has strong tax and Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement practices, he said.
In his new role, Green plans to bring together professionals from all aspects of financial services - including the legislative, regulatory, compliance, enforcement and financial litigation practices -- to serve clients in a "more coordinated way," he said.
Green had been chair of the financial services and tax policy practice group at Squire Patton Boggs, the product of a merger last year between Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs. He had been at Patton Boggs since 2007.
Many people left Squire Patton Boggs in the wake of the merger. Green said he was a "strong supporter of the merger" and thought it was good time to make a move a year later. He said he feels comfortable that his old firm will handle his departure well.
Prior to working at Patton Boggs, Green served as president and co-chief executive officer of SIFMA and was president and CEO one of its predecessor groups, The Bond Market Association.
Walsh previously worked at the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, where she was involved with pay-to-play rules, municipal disclosure and trade reporting, according to the release. She also held senior leadership positions at the American Bankers Association and the ABA Securities Association.
Green said that Walsh has "deep experience in a lot of the muni regulatory issues."
Kulkin advises financial market participants on legislative and regulatory issues and is co-chair of the DC Bar's Derivatives, Securitization & Project Finance Committee. Dunn is a former commissioner and acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Shilts is a former director of the CFTC's division of market oversight, according to the release.
