Former Senior Legal Advisor CFTC joins Mayer Brown as Danielle Abada
New York, October 12th / PRNewswire / -- Mayer Brown Today, it was announced that Danielle Abada has joined the capital markets department of the firm's New York office as a partner. She comes from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of the United States ( CFTC ), where she previously served as a senior special advisor in the Market Participants Division. She also held the position of CFTC and was a senior legal counsel for Kristin N. Johnson.
The chairman of the firm, Jon Van Gorp, stated: "We are very pleased to welcome Danielle to join our firm. Her experience in CFTC will help clients navigate a rapidly evolving regulatory environment for derivatives and digital assets; this environment has seen significant innovation and market growth in recent years."
During his tenure at CFTC, Danielle provided advice on the complex legal, regulatory, and policy matters affecting the entities supervised by CFTC, and promoted the committee's key work in regulation and market development, including crypto assets and blockchain technology, predictive markets and event contracts, as well as artificial intelligence.
Before joining government departments, Danielle represented financial institutions and fintech companies during her private practice, handling a wide range of regulatory, compliance, trading, and legislative affairs. She also provided advice to clients on emerging and evolving technologies such as distributed ledgers, digital assets, and artificial intelligence. Danielle has provided agency services in banking, derivatives, and securities regulation and trading affairs for institutions including banks, swap traders, brokerage firms, exchanges, asset and investment management companies, hedge funds, and proprietary trading firms.
Danielle will work alongside the firm's leading teams in derivatives and structured products, as well as in financial technology. Mayer Brown has been rated as "Law Firm of the Year (Overall) in the Americas" by GlobalCapital's Americas Derivatives Awards for five consecutive years, most recently in 2026. The firm has been awarded Tier status in multiple categories of derivatives and structured products by Chambers USA, IFLR1000, and The Legal for 500 times. It has also been rated as Tier in the field of Fintech by The Legal for 500 times and has been recognized as a leading law firm in five categories of US financial technology law by Chambers FinTech, including corporate, securities, and financing.
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