Georgetown Law

Gregory Scopino is an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Structured Disclosure (OSD) in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he works to expand the use of structured data languages, such as inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL), and standard identifiers, such as Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs), in financial regulatory disclosures. His work in OSD DERA advocating for the use of machine-readable data formats derives from a desire to make securities regulatory disclosures more accessible to humans and algorithms. Prior that joining the SEC, he was a Special Counsel with the Market Participants Division at the headquarters of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in Washington, D.C., where he helps the Division provide interpretative guidance on Commission Regulations to market participants and assists with rulemakings necessitated by the Dodd-Frank Act. He previously worked in the CFTC’s Enforcement Division, in which capacity he civilly prosecuted cases across the country that involved fraud or manipulative trading practices in the financial markets for derivatives. In his personal capacity, Mr. Scopino researches and writes about law and regulatory policy at the intersection of technology and finance, with a focus on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial markets.

Before joining the CFTC, he was a litigator at private firms in New York, first with Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then with Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. While working at law firms, his practice focused on securities and antitrust litigation, as well as civil and criminal appellate work.

Mr. Scopino’s academic legal research has explored how automation, artificial intelligence, and related technologies are necessitating changes to the laws and regulations governing key aspects of business and finance. In this capacity, Mr. Scopino’s research interests include financial regulation, antitrust, business organizations (including the impact of organizational culture and norms as they relate to regulatory compliance) and administrative law. More specifically, his research seeks to analyze how the law operates at the intersection(s) of two (or more) legal or regulatory paradigms, and how regulatory initiatives operate and adapt to changes in the behavior of regulated entities brought on by, inter alia, advances in technology. He has written about financial regulations promulgated pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act and the regulation of automated and high-frequency trading in the financial markets. He has had articles published in the Columbia Business Law Review, the Connecticut Law Review, the Florida Law Review, and more.

Mr. Scopino has spoken at conferences on topics ranging from the regulation of artificial intelligence to legal and regulatory issues associated with financial technology (“FinTech”). In 2020, Cambridge University Press published Mr. Scopino’s book, Algo Bots and the Law: Technology, Automation, and the Regulation of Futures and Other Derivatives. The book explains how the increasing automation of the financial markets for derivatives presents challenges to the oversight of these markets and discusses potential ways for authorities to address issues presented by computerized trading and related systems. Portions of the book analyze financial market flash events and the regulation of financial instruments tied to digital assets, including, but not limited to, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.