The Corporate Lab Speaker Series Presents: Jeff Golden on Derivatives-What Every Transactional Lawyer Should Know
Jeffrey Golden is Chairman of The P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation in The Hague, and a member of the Foundation's Panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance, a Visiting Professor in the Law Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Governor of the School, and a Director of MFX Solutions, Inc., an industry initiative providing currency hedging for microfinance. He recently retired from international law firm Allen & Overy LLP, which he joined as a partner in 1994 after 15 years with the leading Wall Street practice of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. He was the founding partner of Allen & Overy's US law practice and senior partner in the firm's global derivatives practice and has extensive experience of a wide range of capital markets matters, including swaps and derivatives, international equity and debt offerings, US private placements and listings and mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He acts for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, was a principal author of ISDA's master agreements and has appeared as an expert witness in several high profile derivatives cases.
Jeffrey has served on the American Bar Association's working group on the rule of law and economic development (Chair), the Financial Markets Law Committee's working groups on amicus briefs, emergency powers legislation and Enron v TXU (Chair), the Financial Law Panel's working groups on agency dealings by fund managers and other intermediaries and building societies legislation, the Federal Trust's working group on European securities regulation and the European Commission's study group, the City of London joint working group and ISDA task forces on the legal aspects of monetary union.
He is Chair of the Society of English and American Lawyers (SEAL) and a former Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law, Co-Chair of its Financial Engineering for Economic Development (FEED) and International Criminal Court task forces and a former Co-Chair of its International Securities and Capital Markets and U.S. Lawyers Practicing Abroad Committees, an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Life Fellow (Co-Chair, International) of the American Bar Foundation. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the ABA/UNDP International Legal Resource Center, on the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20, as a member of the ABA House of Delegates and as Section of International Law Liaison to the ABA Financial Markets Regulatory Reform task force (Chair, Derivatives Working Group).
He studied at Duke University, the London School of Economics and Political Science and Columbia University School of Law, from which he received his J.D. degree with honors in 1978. He is General Editor of the Capital Markets Law Journal (Oxford University Press), a member of the Editorial Board of Derivatives Use, Trading & Regulation, a trustee of the International Bar Association Foundation, Chairman of the LSE Alumni Association and a member of the International Advisory Board of Columbia Law School, the Duke Global Capital Markets Center Advisory Board, the World Legal Forum Advisory Board, the International Lawyers for Africa (ILFA) Advisory Committee and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Local Capital Market Development Legal and Regulatory Assessment Advisory Panel.
Recent awards for Jeffrey Golden, his projects and his law firm teams include Best Newcomer 2012 – P.R.I.M.E. Finance (Global Arbitration Review), Derivatives Law Firm of the Year 2009 (RISK), 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 (Derivatives Week); FT Innovative Lawyers Award 2007 (Financial Times); and Capital Markets Team of the Year 1998 (Legal Business). He has topped the rankings for derivatives lawyers and drawn accolades from all leading law firm directories, including, among others, having been hailed as "Mr Derivatives" (Chambers) and "legendary" (Legal 500) and credited with having "written the law on derivatives" (Legal 500).