WilmerHale is pleased to announce the arrival of Paul Architzel as partner in the firm’s Washington DC office. Mr. Architzel will advise firm clients on commodity futures and derivatives rulemaking and enforcement, as recent regulatory reform mandates extensive new regulations over the swaps and derivatives markets.

"CFTC regulation has become increasingly important to clients in the financial services industry as well as to end users,” said William R. McLucas, chair of WilmerHale’s Securities Department. “With the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, Paul’s knowledge and expertise in this arena will be invaluable in helping clients navigate the challenges of the new financial regulatory environment."

Most recently a partner at Alston & Bird LLP, Mr. Architzel’s practice focuses on all areas of futures regulation, including the regulation of commodity pools and commodity trading advisors, and the regulation of futures exchanges and futures commission merchants. He is an expert on issues involving the listed derivatives markets, the clearing and trading of OTC derivatives, end-user market participation and cross-border access issues. He also handles complex matters that involve the overlapping jurisdiction of securities and futures regulations, as well as compliance issues facing hedge funds and commodity pools. Mr. Architzel has practiced actively before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission and is a frequent speaker at futures and derivatives industry conferences.

Before entering private practice, Mr. Architzel served as chief counsel of the Division of Economic Analysis, now the Division of Market Oversight, at the CFTC for more than 20 years, and was the chief architect of the Core Principle framework for futures market regulation codified by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. He also wrote the CFTC’s rules for regulated and exempt markets. Mr. Architzel also spent several years as the in-house chief US regulatory counsel for Eurex Frankfurt AG, a global derivatives/futures exchange and clearinghouse.

“We are very excited to welcome Paul to the firm,” said William J. Perlstein, co-managing partner at WilmerHale. “As a commodity futures and derivatives regulatory expert, Paul’s extensive experience will complement our securities and financial institutions practices and allow us to provide the full suite of financial services regulatory, enforcement and litigation support to our clients.”

“I am very pleased to join WilmerHale, a firm widely recognized as one of the finest financial services firms in the nation" said Mr. Architzel. "I look forward to working with its extremely talented team and I'm excited to bring a futures and derivatives perspective to WilmerHale's already preeminent practice in securities regulatory and enforcement matters. Working together, we will be able to offer an even higher and deeper level of service to our clients."

Mr. Architzel earned his JD from The National Law Center, George Washington University, where he was a member of Order of the Coif. He received his BA summa cum laude from State University of New York at Albany. Mr. Architzel is also an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course on futures regulation and the Commodity Exchange Act in the Securities and Financial Regulation LLM program. He is admitted to the District of Columbia Bar.

WilmerHale’s Securities Department, consisting of more than 200 lawyers, offers regulatory, enforcement and litigation capabilities and is widely recognized for experience in all aspects of capital markets, investment management, broker-dealer and financial services regulation. Recognized as the “‘place to go’ for high-profile matters that carry large potential liabilities” (Chambers USA), “the number one firm for enforcement in the US” (Legal 500 US 2008) and one of the top five “Securities Defense Firms of 2009” (Law360), WilmerHale has played a central role in a number of prominent US federal and state securities investigations and regularly represents companies, directors and senior management in governmental and internal investigations.