J.S. Held, a Diamond sponsor of the SIFMA C&L Seminar, releases a special edition of the ArbReporter®.
JERICHO, N.Y., March 24, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Global consulting firm J.S. Held announces from the preeminent meeting place for compliance and legal professionals in financial services, the SIFMA's C&L Annual Seminar, team and expertise expansion to advise on increasingly complex engagements, and a special edition of the ArbReporter®.
J.S. Held experts support clients in the financial services industry, including broker-dealers, banks, insurance companies, registered investment advisors, law firms, and private and public companies. The team is comprised of Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE), FINRA-designated Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professionals (CRCP), and Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA).
The team's significant professional experience is supported by proprietary and market-leading technology to help clients manage legal, regulatory, and operational risks. "State-of-the-art technology solutions, including ArbSelector® and MockArb® created by our team, support our growing and world-class consulting and advisory capabilities," shares Senior Managing Director Vadim Khavinson. J.S. Held is pleased to share a special edition of the weekly ArbReporter® from SIFMA. ArbReporter provides a comprehensive review of all FINRA awards from the prior week and contains essential information such as claimant and respondent, attorneys, the nature of each case, relief requests, arbitrators, and case disposition, including final awards, other damages, and dissenting opinions.
Vadim Khavinson adds, "SIFMA presents an ideal platform from which we can share further expertise across J.S. Held for the benefit of the compliance and legal community." Representing J.S. Held at SIFMA is a collection of tenured professionals whose expertise, having served both sides of the desk, is theoretical, practical, and grounded in real-world experience and innovation. J.S. Held experts provide guidance and solutions in the areas of litigation consulting, regulatory compliance & enforcement, and data analytics & investigations within the financial services sector.
Meet the Experts at SIFMA
Bob Valker works closely with in-house and outside counsel to provide dispute resolution, forensic analyses, investment performance analytics, and expert testimony in bank, broker-dealer, and investment advisory litigation cases. In addition to being recognized for his quantitative expertise, he oversees and supervises a team of consultants who assess financial misconduct and potential customer remediation stemming from regulatory and internal investigations.
Stephen Strombelline brings years of compliance and regulatory experience along with enterprise risk management credentials within the securities and banking industries, having served as the Head of Corporate Compliance for Charles Schwab Corp and Chief Compliance Officer in the US for Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas. Steve began his career at the NASD (now FINRA), where he was appointed Associate Director of the NY District office. He is a former C&L conference chair and longtime member of the Compliance & Legal Society Executive Committee of SIFMA.
Eric Siber has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. In his previous role on Wall Street, Eric was a Senior Managing Director and Complex Director for RBC Wealth Management's largest single-branch Complex, responsible for the supervision, compliance, sales, and recruiting for the Complex. He has significant brokerage firm and broker-dealer experience, with particular expertise in supervision, transactional and fee-based platforms, branch and complex management, and compliance, including suitability-related issues. Eric led a team that administers the Broker Protocol at Capital Forensics and has testified as an Expert on Broker Protocol-related matters.
Julie Lambert is a seasoned compliance professional with extensive experience in credit, operational, and reputational risk reduction. Julie's prior work included reviewing relevant information and interviewing personnel to determine if a claim would be denied, litigated, or settled. She has also researched and responded to regulatory inquiries from FINRA, SEC, and state regulatory entities. She has testified as a fact witness and served as a firm representative in multiple arbitrations while working at Wells Fargo.
Kamran Fotouhi expertise focuses on compliance and supervisory-related matters, having worked with both regulators and financial services firms, including traditional top-tier wirehouse firms, large national full-service broker-dealers, investment management firms, governmental and self-regulatory organizations, insurance companies, banks, and large correspondent clearing firms. Kamran is proficient in the regulatory oversight of broker-dealer finances, operations, risk controls, and sales practice conduct. He also served as Surveillance Director at FINRA, identifying and addressing current and emerging risks in conjunction with monitoring the oversight of 265 broker-dealer firms' compliance with industry rules and regulations.
Christine Cornejo specializes in the reduction of regulatory risk associated with regulatory reporting, operational workflow processing, and data analysis. Having managed various business lines as a senior manager, she provides end-to-end problem analyses and solutions that meet clients' regulatory and business needs. Christine previously served as Director, Compliance and Regulatory at Thomson Reuters, managing that firm's Wealth Management Compliance department, while providing several of the nation's largest broker-dealers with guidance for regulatory reporting and books and records requirements. Additionally, Christine has managed compliance departments for Washington Mutual and Wachovia Securities.
Jerome Gutterman consults in matters of forensic analyses and damage assessments. He serves as an expert witness in bank, broker-dealer, and investment advisory litigation matters. Previously, he was a trader at Belvedere Trading, making markets for options and futures in equity and commodity markets.
Zachary Kahn oversees dozens of regulatory projects covering various FINRA and SEC Initiatives, Enforcement Matters, and Internal Reviews. Mr. Kahn leads a team of consultants to process, validate, and analyze datasets of varying sizes, sometimes billions of records. He collaborates with other J.S. Held experts to ensure the methodologies applied are following industry standards.
Antonio Rega brings expert consulting, advisory, and subject matter expertise to global corporations and law firms in digital forensics, data governance, privacy, security, emerging technology, and discovery. He leads complex investigations, leveraging his proactive and reactive discovery and analysis expertise. He conducts in-depth examinations of electronically stored information (ESI) across various repositories, including cloud, local devices, web, and mobile. His advisory services span the entire investigation and litigation lifecycle, including proactive compliance and regulatory assessments, responses to government subpoenas, subject matter expertise, and advisory services, as well as helping clients navigate the complexities of investigations and litigation.
Joining Vadim and the team at SIFMA is Brent Taylor, a former general counsel, chief compliance officer, and securities regulator with more than 30 years of experience in financial services. His expertise includes wealth management, asset management, fiduciary, and investment banking for global banks, broker-dealers, and investment advisers.
"Our strength is our people," said Vadim Khavinson, Senior Managing Director. "The team of highly qualified professionals have acquired their experiences through longstanding careers with regulatory bodies, in-house at leading banks, broker-dealers, and investment advisories."
Together at J.S. Held, more than 1,500 professionals serve organizations across six continents, including 81% of the Global 200 Law Firms, 70% of the Forbes Top 20 Insurance Companies (85% of the NAIC top 50 Property & Casualty Insurers), and 65% of the Fortune 100 Companies.
About J.S. Held
J.S. Held is a global consulting firm that combines technical, scientific, financial, and strategic expertise to advise clients seeking to realize value and mitigate risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high stakes matters demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, proven experience, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets. The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services, products, and data that enable clients to navigate complex, contentious, and often catastrophic situations.
About Arb Selector®
Developed and maintained by J.S. Held, ArbSelector® enables legal counsel to make informed, strategic decisions in their selection of FINRA arbitrators. Over the past decade, ArbSelector has become recognized as the industry standard for this important due diligence task. Based on the entirety of FINRA, NASD, and NYSE award data, as well as proprietary arbitrator insights, ArbSelector delivers a level of detail, accuracy, and integrity demanded by those who rely on it to successfully choose the preferred panel for arbitration. To date, ArbSelector has produced more than 4000 reports to assist clients in the selection of FINRA arbitrators.
About MockArb®
MockArb provides legal counsel and their clients with insights into the factors most likely to drive the outcome of a high-stakes arbitration decision. MockArb® examines case-related issues and human factors to develop a mock panel of FINRA arbitrators closely resembling those involved in your case. This panel offers evaluation through each step of the mock arbitration process, providing a barometer of a panel's ruling, while allowing legal counsel to test and calibrate their arbitration strategy, including settlement evaluation.
J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not certified public accounting firm(s) and do not provide audit, attest, or any other public accounting services. J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not law firms and do not provide legal advice. Securities offered through PM Securities, LLC, d/b/a Phoenix IB, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/ SIPC or Ocean Tomo Investment Group, LLC, a part of J.S. Held, member FINRA/ SIPC. All rights reserved.
Media Contact
Kristi L. Stathis, J.S. Held, +1 786 833 4864, [email protected], JSHeld.com
SOURCE J.S. Held
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