Georgetown Law

Mr. Higgins is the Global Head of Non-Financial Risk (Rates) at Deutsche Bank. In this role, Mr. Higgins sits on the bank’s trading floor and advises on applicable laws and regulations globally, including the laws and regulations administered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Before this role, Mr. Higgins worked for another large investment bank in a similar capacity.

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).