A&O Shearman

Litigation & lnvestigations

Partner

Gregory Mocek’s practice involves legal and strategic guidance on a broad range of issues, including regulatory, government investigations, internal investigations, the Dodd-Frank Act, litigation, legislation, compliance, global financial regulatory and operational risk.

Gregory is one of the top commodity and derivatives lawyers in the United States, and has advised clients and led investigations in more than a dozen countries. In addition to recognition by Chambers, Washington D.C. Super Lawyers, and The Legal 500, he was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America since 2012 in the area of Derivatives and Futures Law. He also was honored as Lawyer of the Year in The Best Lawyers in America 2013 for Derivatives and Futures Law. Chambers USA said Gregory is a lawyer who has “encyclopedic knowledge of the CFTC.” As a former member of the Board of Directors of the Commodity Markets Council, Gregory was involved in rulemaking and policy discussions with industry and regulators. Gregory remains on the frontline of domestic and cross-border regulatory issues, investigations, and litigation in the commodity and derivatives markets. He is regularly retained to advise and defend executives and corporations in bet-the-company regulatory matters, inquiries and investigations that require significant appreciation of markets, trading dynamics, and regulatory scope. His advisory work and defense of clients in the physical, swaps, futures, and options markets has covered multiple commodities including agriculture, energy, metals, interest rates, virtual currency, and foreign currency.

Over more than twenty years, Gregory handled regulatory matters, investigations and litigated cases related to price reporting and commodity benchmarks, manipulation, fraud, wash trading, false reporting, unlawful trading practices, supervision, spoofing, position limits, capitalization and many other issues. He has advised clients related to registration issues associated with designated contract markets, swap execution facilities, swap dealers, futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, commodity trading advisors, and commodity pool operators. Given his extensive regulatory background, Gregory was also called to testify during the rulemaking process at the CFTC, offering comments and insight on the disruptive trading practices and the spoofing provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. As a former Director of Enforcement for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gregory rose through the organization to provide leadership as one of the longest serving enforcement directors in Commission history. Leading 175 professionals in the Division of Enforcement, he was responsible for managing the Commission’s investigations, policies and related litigation in the U.S. and abroad. During the Bush administration, Gregory directed a wide variety of domestic and international cases at the CFTC involving complex OTC, physical and on-exchange transactions. He also worked closely with the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force, the Enron Task Force, FERC, SEC, DOJ, and multiple other U.S. and foreign regulatory bodies. Furthermore, he played a key role in high-profile CFTC actions against Enron, Amaranth, and in hundreds of other complex cases. Gregory and his investigation and litigation teams developed techniques, theories, and case law in the energy markets that ultimately were the backbone of the commodity benchmark cases. Prior to his appointment as the Director of Enforcement, Gregory held several titles at the CFTC, including Special Counsel to Chairman Dr. James Newsome and Senior Trial Attorney.

Before joining the CFTC, he was in private practice and focused on securities, commodities and commercial litigation. Gregory advises a broad spectrum of clients, including domestic and international banks, proprietary trading firms, commercial companies, producers, commodity merchants, foreign and domestic trading houses, major oil companies, and hedge funds. He has represented corporations, boards of directors, and individuals in investigations involving the CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, National Futures Association, Federal Trade Commission, Financial Conduct Authority, BaFin, CME Group, ICE Futures, and other regulatory and enforcement authorities. A frequent speaker on compliance, risk, fintech, and Dodd-Frank regulatory and enforcement issues, Gregory is a member of the Futures Industry Association, and the Commodities & Derivatives Section of the American Bar Association.