Fundamentals of Banking Law 2023

Karol Sparks Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Barack Ferrazzano LLP, Chicago

KAROL K. SPARKS is Senior Counsel in the financial institutions practice group of Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP, Chicago, Illinois. Her practice concentration relates to general bank regulatory matters and mergers, acquisitions, and corporate activities of financial institutions, with special emphasis on non-traditional bank products and services, including insurance and broker-dealer activities, licensing, and acquisitions, and commercial and consumer deposit and payment products. Karol attended Sweet Briar College, holds a B.A. degree from Butler University and a J.D. degree (1979) from Indiana University School of Law. She is a member of the Illinois, New York, Indiana (inactive), and California (inactive) Bars.

An active member of the Banking Law Committee of the Business Section of the American Bar Association since 1984, Karol entered into its leadership and chaired the committee from August of 1998 until August of 2002. Following her term as chair of the committee, she was appointed to a four-year term on the Council of the Business Section of the ABA in 2004, where she served on the Finance Committee. Thereafter, she was appointed to the Publications Board of the Business Section.  She served as its vice chair in 2010-2011 and, for a two-year term that ended in August of 2014, she chaired the Publications Board.

Karol’s most recent, and most basic, book, Banking Law Essentials, was just published by the American Bar Association in 2022.  She is also the author of The Keys to Banking Law, A Hand Book for Lawyers (now in its Third Edition), published by the Business Law Section, and the legal treatise Insurance Activities of Banks (now in its second edition), published by Wolters Kluwer in 1998 and updated annually, as well as numerous articles on bank acquisitions and activities.  From 2009 until 2013, she was an Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, having previously taught at the University of Iowa College of Law as an Adjunct from 2001-2007.  From January of 2014 until she retired in April of 2018, she was a Lecturer in Law in the Graduate Program in Banking and Financial Law of the Boston University School of Law.  She is a member of the founding faculty of Banking Law Basics, an ABA-CLE course offered in June and October of each year from 1998-2011, and its successor course, Banking Law Fundamentals, which began in 2012.

John M. Geiringer Related Seminars and Products

Partner, Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP; Co-Director, Center for National Security and Human Rights Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law

Barack Ferrazzano LLP, Chicago

John is a nationally recognized banking attorney who advises financial institutions on regulatory, governance, and investigative matters. He regularly provides focused training sessions to boards and management on a wide range of legal and risk management topics. Working at the forefront of banking law and regulation, John is a thought leader in the field, primarily through teaching, writing, and frequent media interviews.

As the Regulatory Section Leader of BFKN’s Financial Institutions Group, John advises a wide variety of financial institutions around the country about the full spectrum of legal, regulatory, and supervisory issues that they face. He is a frequent speaker and author in the financial institutions area on issues surrounding banking regulations, examinations, and enforcement actions, as well as on cybersecurity.

John devotes significant time to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and related national security issues. In this regard, he lectures and advises institutions around the country, engages with relevant organizations, and has published on the subject.

Prior to joining BFKN in 1999, John worked as a bank regulator and also as a compliance consultant. He served as legal counsel for the Illinois bank regulatory agency, now the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. John also obtained practical experience with respect to bank operations and compliance issues as a regulatory consultant with a regional accounting firm, performing compliance reviews and training for a variety of financial institutions.

Hugh C. Conroy, Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Hugh C. Conroy Jr. is a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York.  He is distinguished as one of the leading financial services regulation lawyers by Chambers USA, the IFLR 1000: The Guide to the World’s Leading Law Firms, and The Legal 500 U.S.  Mr. Conroy’s practice focuses on bank and bank holding company regulatory issues, as well as broader financial services developments, particularly in the digital assets and novel licensing space.  Mr. Conroy has presented on regulatory issues at conferences sponsored by the American Bankers Association, the American Bar Association, the Financial Markets Association, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and has been a guest lecturer on regulatory matters at Columbia Law School and NYU Law School.  Mr. Conroy is a former Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Banking Law Committee, and a former Vice-Chair and Chair of its subcommittee on Securities, Capital Markets and Derivatives. 

Mr. Conroy co-authors (with Derek M. Bush) a chapter entitled “U.S. Regulation of International Activities of U.S. Banking Organizations” (Regulation of Foreign Banks & Affiliates in the United States, Ninth Edition, 2016).  Mr. Conroy is also a co-author (with Robert L. Tortoriello and Derek M. Bush) of the Guide to Bank Underwriting, Dealing & Brokerage Activities (ThomsonReuters, 22nd ed., 2018).  From 2004 to 2011, Mr. Conroy served as associate general counsel and managing director in Citigroup’s Bank Regulatory Office.  From 1996 to 2004, he was an associate in Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s Banking Group.  He received a J.D. degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1996 and an undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the College of William and Mary in 1992.  In 1992-93, Mr. Conroy was a Fulbright Scholar at Kanazawa University in Japan.

John Buchman Related Seminars and Products

Chair Emeriti

The George Washington University Law School - The Business and Finance Advisory Council Chairman

John A. Buchman has been an attorney with Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., San Francisco, CA, since December 2015, most recently as Managing Director, Regulatory Counsel.  At Schwab, John is responsible for the Treasury Legal team, which monitors is responsible for advising Schwab’s Treasury group on all matters relating to capital stress testing, liquidity risk management, Volcker Rule compliance, securities markets transactions, and FDIC insurance assessments.  John also advises the Deposits & Payments groups that oversees the company’s Bank Sweep deposits initiatives and Comptroller’s group responsible for regulatory reporting.

John is currently a Lecturer in Law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law where he teaches an online Financial Institutions Regulation class.  From 1991 to 2015, John was a member of the adjunct faculty at GW Law School in Washington, DC where he taught banking law and a financial regulatory reform seminar class, and he has also guest lectured at Berkeley Law School. From 2010 to 2015, John served as the first Chair of the Advisory Board of GW Law’s Center for Law, Economics and Finance.  Prior to joining Charles Schwab, from 2013-2015 John was Executive Counsel, Regulatory Affairs with GE Capital in Norwalk, CT, and prior to that was Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of E*TRADE Bank in Arlington, VA for over 12 years. John is a director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Congressional Bank in Bethesda, MD. He is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Banking Law and Consumer Financial Services Committees and the Exchequer Club. John received his law degree from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Scott Alvarez Related Seminars and Products

Retired General Counsel

Federal Reserve Board

Scott G. Alvarez retired in September, 2017, after having served as an attorney at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for 36 years, including 13 years as the General Counsel to the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee.  As the chief legal officer for the Board. he provided legal and policy advice on a wide range of regulatory, administrative, organizational, legislative and other issues related to the duties and operations of the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve System, and FOMC.  During his tenure at the Board, Scott drafted regulations, legislation, testimony and legal and policy memoranda for the Board of Governors and other senior officers of the Federal Reserve, managed the Legal Division, which is comprised of 95 attorneys and 25 staff, and served as a representative of the Federal Reserve on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.  Scott has testified more than a dozen times before Congress on various issues related to banking regulation and the Federal Reserve and before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the Congressional Oversight Panel regarding the financial crisis of 2007-2009.  He has also provided legal and technical assistance to Congress on various regulatory and legislative matters, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, FDICIA, FIRREA, the Federal Reserve Act, the Bank Holding Company Act, and other banking laws.  Recently, Scott is an Adjunct Professor at the Boston University Law School and has been a guest lecturer at the Yale School of Management, Columbia University Law School, New York University Law School, and the UNC Law School.  He was also a contributor to a book on the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 sponsored by the Brooking Institution and the Yale School of Management.  Scott received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University.

Joseph Silvia Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Duane Morris LLP

Joe provides guidance on a variety of matters including mergers & acquisitions, strategic transactions, governance, international banking, payments systems, anti-money laundering and sanctions, and private equity and venture capital investments. He advises financial institutions, fintech companies, and corporations regarding risk and compliance, third party vendor management, consumer protection, digital currencies, affiliate transactions, privacy, and retail and commercial banking, including handling significant drafting and negotiation of vendor agreements and bank agreements between financial institutions and their clients.

Joe handles matters for his clients concerning banking and financial services regulation, including state and federal regulation with respect to licensing, retail banking, consumer credit, cannabis, anti-money laundering and OFAC compliance, and more. Having previously served as counsel to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where he focused on the supervision and regulation of banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies as well as consumer finance and compliance matters, Joseph has a unique perspective on all aspects of the banking system.

Joe is an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he teaches Consumer Banking Law.

Sara A. Kelsey Related Seminars and Products

Solo Practitioner, former State and Federal Bank Regulator

Sara A. Kelsey Law, PLLC

Sara Kelsey has over 40 years of experience in the banking and finance industry, specializing in domestic bank regulatory law.  Sara established her solo practice in 2012.  Most recently, Sara has taught at New York University Law School and in the past at other NY-area law schools.  Sara began her career in the the Legal Division of the Federal Reserve Board of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (1976-1987).  She has served as General Counsel of the FDIC (2007-8), Counsel for the New York State Banking Department (now the New York State Department of Financial Services) (1998-2007), Regulatory Counsel for what is now known as JP Morgan Chase (1987-1996); Skadden Arps (1996-1998); and Wilmer Hale (2008-12).  Sara received her JD from New York University School of Law and a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sarah W. Elliott Related Seminars and Products

Independent Director

Anchorage Digital Bank, NA and FS Vector

Sarah is an Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair on the board of Anchorage Digital Bank NA, the first federally chartered digital asset bank. She is a guest lecturer in banking and fintech law at law schools across the US, and serves as an advisor to various venture funds and private companies. Previously, from inception until acquisition by Walmart and Ribbit Capital in 2022, Sarah was the GC and CCO at ONE, a retail banking platform that integrated spending, saving, borrowing, and sharing in one account using one card. Sarah was also the first GC and CCO at Azlo, a small business banking platform, and the first lawyer and Head of Compliance at Blend, a loan application platform for banks and mortgage lenders. In 2017, Sarah founded the 94104 Exchange, a San Francisco-based forum for fintech lawyers and compliance professionals that facilitated “the unregulated exchange of ideas.” Prior to that, in Washington, DC, Sarah was an attorney at the OCC and at BuckleySandler LLP, and a Principal at Promontory Financial Group. Sarah earned her JD at

 GW Law and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music.

Jay Johnson Related Seminars and Products

Managing Director, Deputy Chief Counsel

Charles Schwab

Jay Johnson is Managing Director and Deputy Chief Counsel in the Technology, Digital and Innovation legal group at Charles Schwab and oversees privacy and cybersecurity for the company’s legal team.  He also is an adjunct professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law, where he developed and teaches the school’s flagship class on data privacy and cybersecurity law.  Jay previously was a partner in Jones Day’s Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Data Protection practice group and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas.  At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he coordinated the U.S. Attorney’s efforts to investigate and prosecute cyber crime and IP theft, and he served as the primary internal resource for the district’s prosecutors on issues related to the collection and use of electronic evidence. At the outset of his career, Jay clerked for federal judges in the District of Kansas and at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.”