Mark D. Higgins

Mr. Higgins currently serves as Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the CFTC. He provides legal advice to the Commission and staff regarding the Commodity Exchange Act, CFTC regulations, and the Administrative Procedure Act. He is the lead counsel for the OGC Consideration of Costs and Benefits Review Unit. Mr. Higgins was principal staff draftsman and team lead for certain rulemakings implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, including anti-manipulation regulations under § 753; MOU regarding information sharing between the CFTC and FERC under § 720; amendments to effective date for swap regulation (Dec. 19, 2011). In 2011, he was the recipient of the Chairman’s Award for Staff Excellence.

Mr. Higgins is also Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center where he is creator and teacher of a cross-listed J.D. and LL.M. seminar on the regulation of energy derivatives under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules and regulations. Mr. Higgins is also Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law where he teaches a J.D. course on the laws and regulations affecting derivatives trading in financial markets.

Prior to working at the CFTC, Mr. Higgins was Attorney-Advisor at FERC’s Office of Enforcement where he investigated and resolved numerous enforcement cases arising under the Federal Power Act, Natural Gas Act, and FERC rules and regulations, including cross-market manipulation matters involving OTC and exchange-traded derivatives. He was also principal staff draftsman of several rulemakings implementing the Energy Policy Act of 2005, including FERC’s new anti-manipulation authority set forth in section 4A of the Natural Gas Act and section 222 of the Federal Power Act. During his work at FERC, Mr. Higgins was the recipient of several awards for outstanding performance.

In prior years he also served as Presidential Management Fellow for the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, and Investment Banking Financial Analyst at Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking (f/k/a Salomon Brothers).