B.B.A., The City University of New York Baruch College; J.D., St. John's University; LL.M., Georgetown
Mr. Higgins is a Director in the Front Office Markets Risk and Control function of a large, transatlantic investment bank based in New York and London. In this role, Mr. Higgins sits on the bank’s derivatives trading floor and advises on applicable laws and regulations, including the laws and regulations administered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. His responsibilities include drafting the bank’s Policies, Standards and Procedures governing its Markets business. Before this role, Mr. Higgins worked for the same bank’s Compliance department focusing on commodities and swap dealer matters.
Prior to joining the investment bank, Mr. Higgins served as Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the CFTC where he provided legal advice to the Commission and staff regarding the Commodity Exchange Act, CFTC regulations, and the Administrative Procedure Act. Mr. Higgins was the 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 received the Chairman’s Award for Staff Excellence.
Prior to serving 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 was an Investment Banking Financial Analyst at Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking (f/k/a Salomon Brothers).