WASHINGTON, D.C. (PRWEB) July 18, 2014
Ernesto A. Lanza has returned to the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP as a shareholder in its Public Finance practice in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, Lanza served as the Deputy Executive Director for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB).
While at the MSRB, Lanza led the development of municipal marketplace policy initiatives regulating the municipal securities business of broker-dealers and municipal advisors and influenced the marketplace activities of issuers, obligated persons and other municipal market professionals. He was the author of many of the MSRB’s more sensitive or complicated market transparency and policy notices, including its Long-Range Plan for Market Transparency Products, setting out the vision and strategic plan for the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system, whose creation Lanza spearheaded earlier in his MSRB career.
Lanza previously had served as the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for MSRB. As such, he was responsible for all organizational legal and rulemaking matters and authored or advised on all areas of rulemaking and interpretive initiatives relating to investor protection, protection of state and local governments, and market integrity/structure issues. He worked closely with Senate Banking Committee staff on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to expand the MSRB’s regulatory jurisdiction to include municipal advisors and to strengthen the MSRB’s market transparency mandate. In his role as Senior Associate General Counsel, Lanza conceived and led the design, development and initial launch of the MSRB’s EMMA system, leveraging and repurposing existing – and developing new – data and disclosure sources to revolutionize market practices in the municipal securities market and introducing free public access to market data.
“The processes for bringing a new issue to market and for addressing issues that may arise throughout the life of the securities are evolving rapidly, driven by a series of regulatory changes, enforcement actions, and market structure proposals,” Lanza said. “Recent GAO and SEC studies of municipal securities disclosure practices, and the continued evolution of the MSRB’s EMMA system, will provide new challenges for market participants and will require innovative legal counsel capable of formulating and making issuers and underwriters comfortable with adopting more formal and sometimes novel approaches to meeting disclosure needs.”
At Greenberg Traurig, Lanza focuses his practice on public finance, securities and investment regulation, securities litigation and related practices, with a particular emphasis on regulatory compliance in the municipal markets.
“In recent years, Ernie has worked tirelessly at the MSRB in the implementation of the regulatory response to the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and the Congressional mandates of Dodd-Frank and other legislation,” said Michael Lehr, a regional operating shareholder of the firm. “He brings with him a unique perspective on the current municipal finance regulatory and enforcement environment and an in-depth knowledge of the many recent legal developments in our market. As the municipal markets face increasing regulatory scrutiny, Ernie’s return fits in with our firm strategy to expand key practices with top-tier practitioners in the areas most critical to our clients’ needs.”
“Ernie has virtually unrivaled experience with the challenging new requirements under the SEC’s municipal advisor rule and the MSRB’s underwriter/financial advisor rules, which offers us a significant opportunity for developing, as part of Greenberg Traurig’s sophisticated public finance practice, a comprehensive ‘straight-through processing’ approach to meeting these requirements while simultaneously strengthening internal dealer risk-management, compliance, training and marketing processes and improving issuer disclosure of their complex financings,” said Dianne Coady Fisher, Co-Chair of the firm’s Public Finance Practice.
Lanza had previously worked at Greenberg Traurig from 1988 to 1991. “We are very proud that a Greenberg Traurig alumnus has achieved so much. His impressive journey since he was with us and his extensive experience overseeing the MSRB’s market structure, economic analysis and legislative affairs functions will certainly benefit our public finance clients and complement the services offered by our public finance department,” said Laura Klaus, co-managing shareholder of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
Lanza earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1988 and a B.A., cum laude, from Harvard University in 1985.
Close to 40 attorneys and lobbyists have joined Greenberg Traurig’s Washington, D.C. office in the past 12 months. While the firm has identified the region as an important growth priority, Greenberg Traurig already maintains a strong presence in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia, with more than 140 attorneys in the region, and approximately 1800 attorneys in a total of 29 markets in the U.S. as well as seven locations in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
Greenberg Traurig Public Finance Practice
Greenberg Traurig’s Public Finance Practice has served the needs of state and local issuers, underwriters, credit providers, bondholders, and conduit borrowers throughout the United States for more than 30 years in virtually every area of public finance. The firm currently has 43 attorneys in the Public Finance Practice in its Atlanta, Boca Raton, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Northern Virginia, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tallahassee, Tampa, Washington, D.C. and West Palm Beach offices.
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Greenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, multi-practice law firm with approximately 1750 attorneys serving clients from 36 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm is among the “Power Elite” in the 2014 BTI Client Relationship Scorecard report, which assesses the nature and strength of law firms' client relationships. For additional information, please visit http://www.gtlaw.com.