SIFMA’s Compliance & Legal Society is the leading forum for compliance and legal professionals working in the financial services industry. With a rich 50-year history, it provides a unique opportunity for industry leaders and regulators to come together to share information and collaborate with the goal of ensuring our capital markets are the most fair, transparent and ethical in the world.

Recently, we sat down with John O’Connell, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. John is the global head of the Regulatory Practice Group at Goldman Sachs. He serves on the C&L Society Executive Committee and is co-chair of this year’s Seminar Planning Committee.

You wear many hats in your work with the SIFMA C&L Society. What drives that commitment?

I joined the C&L Executive Committee in 2017. As the global head of Goldman’s Regulatory Practice Group, I’m on the front lines with regulators in the U.S. and around the world and joining the ExCo was a natural extension of my role.

I first attended the Annual Seminar back in the early 2000s and immediately understood how important this event is for our industry. So, when I joined the ExCo, I jumped in right away on the Seminar Planning Committee. I also participate on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, the Nominating & Governance Committee, and am one of the original co-sponsors of Future Leaders Committee.

My gray hair may give away that I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning. The industry has given a lot to me over the years, and I see the ExCo as an opportunity for me to give back. That means helping cultivate leadership for the industry going forward and ensuring that different voices and perspectives are heard and represented in our current ExCo membership and throughout the industry. It’s all about lifting people up.

The C&L Annual Seminar has always been known for mainstage sessions featuring the biggest names with the most interesting things to say. Can you preview what’s in store for this year’s attendees?

We are very excited to welcome Damian Williams and Geoffrey Berman, current and former United States Attorneys for the Southern District of New York. Williams is a historic appointment for the SDNY and it’s important to hear his views on the industry and his priorities. The SDNY undoubtedly has the most impact on our industry of any federal district court in the United States. I’m looking forward to hearing how he anticipates interacting with U.S. financial services regulators, particularly with new leadership in the CFTC, SEC and CFPB, when those individuals are in place. It will be interesting to hear Damian and Geoffrey compare and contrast their roles under the current and previous Administrations.

We have an outstanding Leadership Perspectives Panel this year. Can you preview it?

My pleasure! Our four panelists are Eric Grossman, Chief Legal Officer for Morgan Stanley; Chris Lewis, Principal and General Counsel for Edward Jones; Kathryn Ruemmler, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for Goldman Sachs; and Jonathan Santelli, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Raymond James. The panel will be moderated by Michelle Oroschakoff, Chief Legal Officer for LPL Financial and President of the SIFMA C&L Society.

What I find most interesting about this slate of speakers is that they have responsibility for both legal and compliance. I’m looking forward to hearing how these two functions coordinate and cooperate at each firm, as their structures and reporting lines can be so different across the industry. For instance, how does it work when compliance reports to risk? When the groups are separate but report to the same person? It will be interesting to hear them discuss the issues of the day from both perspectives as well. For instance, how are firms looking at market structure from a legal perspective and a compliance perspective?

FINRA’s Robert Cook is joining us again for a one-on-one conversation and the Ask FINRA panel is moving to the mainstage. What can we expect there?

Robert always has interesting things to say about FINRA’s agenda. Since he assumed leadership at FINRA, he has made significant contributions that include restructuring and increasing transparency. He’s revitalized many aspects of the industry’s SRO and I’m excited to hear what he has planned next.

The Ask FINRA panel features several of Robert’s direct reports and is a dynamic, interactive discussion where our attendees can ask questions directly to FINRA’s leadership. Historically, this panel was a breakout session, but was so popular that people found it hard to choose amongst other sessions in the same timeslot. We made it a general session at last year’s Virtual Seminar and are pleased to do it again now so that people aren’t forced to make difficult choices!

What about breakout sessions? Can you preview those?

There’s a lot of change and uncertainty in the air: the Biden Administration is acting on its agenda, there is new leadership at the SEC, and new leadership is expected at the CFTC and CFPB. Just hearing what experiences other firms and outside counsel have had in this dynamic environment will be of value. What’s happening on the ground? What’s the impact of these changes in regulatory leadership? How are changes playing out?

Top of mind for me personally includes our “Dazed and Confused” panel on cannabis – this would have been unheard of even five years ago but the legal landscape has changed drastically. How are firms adjusting from a legal, compliance, reputational, and business perspective? SPACs have been hot over the past 24 months and we have a session dedicated to that. There are a number of advances on the data and technology front which our panels cover from a variety of angles. One way of looking at it is examining where advances in technology that are leading to client demands for new ways of communicating with firms—such as WhatsApp and WeChat—are outstripping the regulatory regime.

All told, we’ll have more than 50 breakout sessions this year for our attendees to choose from. They are posted to sifma.org/cl-annual and my ExCo colleague, Dave Sparks, will be going into more detail in next month’s C&L Society Update.

Finally, can you tell us a bit about the new DEI Advocate Award?

There has been a strong commitment by the ExCo over the years to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in our industry. As leaders in the industry, it is important for us to not only implement and manifest that commitment in the composition of the ExCo itself and the programming we offer, but also in our overall effort to advance diversity, equity and inclusion across the industry more broadly. There are some exceptional individuals making real progress in the legal and compliance world and we want to recognize their efforts to advance the cause.

We can’t wait to announce the inaugural recipients of our new DEI Advocate Award. Their achievements have paved the way for others to think critically about diversity, equity and inclusion in our industry and have provided the space for creative, solution-based action. I hope you’ll join us in Orlando to celebrate them and their significant contributions to the future of our industry.

John O’Connell is Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and Co-Chair of SIFMA’s 2022 C&L Annual Seminar. To receive our monthly C&L Society Update and more, please visit my.sifma.org.