Donald Horwitz Consulting Launched to Help Firms Navigate Changing Financial Services Regulatory Landscape

CHICAGO, Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As brokerage firms, investment banks and law firms increasingly analyze the impact of regulatory reform and the implementation of compliance measures on the financial services industry, a new Chicago-based consulting practice is aiming to help firms navigate the changing landscape.  Donald L. Horwitz has just launched Donald Horwitz Consulting, LLC (DHC), bringing to the practice nearly four decades of expertise in senior regulatory, compliance and legal counsel roles in the financial services and derivatives industries.

Horwitz, formerly General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for some of the world's most recognized financial institutions, has also assumed the role of Contributing Editor to MarketsReformWiki , a website established by John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. to serve as a central clearinghouse for information about rule changes associated with the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act and similar legislation in other key global markets.  DHC will also collaborate with Larry Israel, CEO of Exchange Analytics, Inc., on training product development.

Horwitz said:  "Right now, firms large and small are hungry for information not only about what changes they need to make to comply with new regulatory requirements but how they can modify their practices while achieving necessary cost efficiencies. I'm pleased to partner with organizations – and often their outside legal counsel – to address the requirements, stay on top of the changing environment and help carve out the appropriate strategy for them."

For the past four years, Horwitz served as Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Regulatory Officer of OneChicago, LLC, the industry's first single stock futures exchange.  Previously, he held a number of senior legal and compliance positions in Chicago and New York with global financial firms, clearing houses and exchanges.  He served as Director/General Counsel for Global Futures at ABN AMRO Incorporated, becoming Executive Director and Senior Attorney at UBS AG when that firm purchased ABN AMRO's global futures operation in 2006.  Prior to that role, Horwitz was Head of Compliance for BrokerTec Futures Exchange and subsequently Eurex US when the two companies merged.  

He spent a number of years as General Counsel of Tokyo-based futures clearing firm Sakura Dellsher, Inc. and of The Options Clearing Corporation, as well as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Merrill Lynch Futures, Inc.  Specializing in futures, securities and regulatory law for a New York-based law firm, Horwitz launched his career in 1974 as a trial attorney in the New York regional office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Horwitz has played a leadership role in both the futures and legal industries, writing extensively about issues affecting futures and securities regulation, serving as an expert witness and arbitrator in numerous matters, participating in panel discussions and chairing a broad range of committees.  Over the years, he has served as the Securities Investors Protection Corporation court-appointed Trustee for the liquidation of a New York City broker-dealer; President of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Law and Compliance Division; Chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Derivatives Regulation Committee; Editor and Board member of the Futures & Derivatives Law Report; Chairman of the National Futures Association Futures Commission Merchant Advisory Committee; member of the Derivatives Regulation Committee of the Association of Bar of the City of New York; and member of the Derivatives and Futures Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association.  

Beginning in 2012, he will become an adjunct professor of Futures and Derivatives Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he recently joined the school's Compliance Advisory Board.

A member of the Illinois, Michigan and New York state bars, Horwitz received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

For more information about Donald Horwitz Consulting, LLC, please visit www.donaldhorwitz.com.

SOURCE Donald Horwitz Consulting