Etienne Barg-Townsend

Etienne Barg-Townsend is a Director, Strategy & Business Management at BMO Capital Markets Corp. and is the Business Manager for Global Structured Products Trading, which specializes in the structuring and trading of agency mortgage-backed securities. Prior to this role, Etienne was Senior Counsel & Director at BMO Capital Markets, managing the U.S. Capital Markets litigation portfolio for BMO’s U.S. Institutional broker-dealer. As in-house litigation counsel, she managed the U.S. investment bank’s litigation, employment, and pre-dispute matters. She also has considerable experience with matters involving broker-dealer regulation and compliance, regulatory and white collar investigations, advising on sales and trading matters, and drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements. Her prior roles have included acting as coverage attorney for the securitized products / mortgage-backed securities businesses and as regulatory counsel for KGS-Alpha Capital Markets L.P., a mid-sized broker-dealer specializing in the sales and trading of mortgage-backed securities, which was acquired by BMO Capital Markets in 2018.

Prior to becoming an in-house lawyer, she worked as an attorney at Shearman & Sterling LLP, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP, and Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP. She holds a Series 7 license, a J.D. from Cornell Law School, and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University.