Georgetown Law

Professor Buffa is the Assistant Chief of the Office of Cooperative Enforcement at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), where his practice focuses on implementation of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”), particularly federal regulation of derivative transactions, and conducting various aspects of federal court litigation.
Professor Buffa leads the CFTC’s Office of Cooperative Enforcement (“OCE”), which serves as the primary liaison to the CFTC’s federal and state partners and provides assistance to criminal and civil authorities in investigating and prosecuting commodities law violators. He also actively litigates civil enforcement actions.

Professor Buffa previously served as Senior to CFTC Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger. He provided legal counsel to theCommissioner Mersinger on a variety of regulatory, enforcement, and policy matters. About a decade ago, Professor Buffa also served as Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to former CFTC Commissioner Scott D. O’Malia where he advised the Commissioner O’Malia on the implementation and promulgation of regulations pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act.
Professor Buffa co-authored the CFTC-SEC Joint Study on Algorithmic Descriptions for Complex and Standardized Financial Derivatives and served on the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee. Professor Buffa has lectured numerous times at the FBI Forensic Accountant Core Training Program and is a regular speaker, panelist, and roundtable participant at conferences sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, North American Securities Administrators Association, and private forums.

Professor Buffa was the CFTC’s lead attorney on the $7 billion fraud case: CFTC v. Walsh (WG Trading). He is the CFTC’s lead attorney on the $185 million fraud case: CFTC v. TMTE (Metals.com). In the Metals.com case, the CFTC and 30 state regulators stopped a massive fraudulent scheme targeting elderly persons nationwide. It is the largest joint filing between CFTC and state regulators in history.

Prior to joining the CFTC, Professor Buffa served in the counsel’s office of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign and was a whip to the Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee and the New Jersey delegation at the Republican National Convention. He was also an attorney at three major national and international law firms.

Professor Buffa is active in the local community. He is the President of the Eudora Civic Association. Also, he is the longtime President of the Beekman Place Condominium Association and was formerly a member of the Parish Pastoral Council (Board of Directors) of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in DC. He served as an elected Commissioner on the District of Columbia’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 1C-08) for the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Professor serves on the Board of Directors of Optimist Club of Greater Vienna (Virginia). He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Financial Services and Electronic Commerce Practice Group.