William B. (“Bill”) Peterson, a member of the firm, specializes in advising on broker-dealer legal issues and regulatory compliance matters together with related regulatory inquiries, investigations, examinations and enforcement matters. Mr. Peterson has over 25 years of varied legal and compliance experience in the financial services industry. He joined the Firm from Dahlman Rose & Co. (DRCO), a full-service independent institutional investment bank/broker-dealer, where he was the registered Chief Compliance and AML Officer for the past 6 years. Prior to DRCO, he spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley (and its predecessor firm Dean Witter) starting as Vice President and Senior Attorney concentrating in litigation defense and regulatory matters, and remained at that firm through its 1997 merger with Morgan Stanley & Co. He left Morgan Stanley as an Executive Director in 2004 to join Citigroup Global Markets, and in 2007 to become the Chief Compliance Officer of DRCO.
Mr. Peterson’s broker-dealer, regulatory, compliance and litigation experience covers areas across the retail and institutional customer, investment banking and capital markets, sales and trading and research businesses of broker-dealers. He has extensive experience in designing, advising on and implementing policies, procedures and supervisory/compliance programs and controls. He also has significant experience in handling regulatory inquiries, investigations, examinations and enforcement proceedings as well as managing and responding to customer inquiries, complaints, arbitrations and litigation. Included in his substantive areas of practice is a wide range of regulatory and compliance issues, from initial and continuing membership issues through including anti-money laundering requirements, reporting and controls; compliance policies, systems, practices, procedures and controls (e.g., FINRA Rules 3010, 3012 & 3013 (3130) and SEC Rule 15c3-5); in-depth knowledge of SEC Regs. AC, M, NMS and SHO and FINRA Rules 2711, 2790, 5122, 5123, 5130 and 5131; underwritings and private offerings of equity and debt securities; corporate finance such as fairness opinions; information barriers; equity and debt research, electronic communications and social media; SEC Rule 15a-6 arrangements and issues; and registration issues such as required qualifications for individuals and firms to conduct and supervise business activities.
Mr. Peterson is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn College summa cum laude and Georgetown University Law Center cum laude, where he was case and notes editor of the international law journal. Before he began his in-house legal and compliance career he spent three years in private practice with Reed Smith, and prior to that served for 3 years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Mr. Peterson is admitted to the bars of New York and the District of Columbia. At DRCO, he held both the FINRA Series 7 and 24 licenses, and passed the Canadian IIROC Principals, Officers and Directors Examination in 2012. He belongs to the American Bar Association and the SIFMA Legal and Compliance Society. He has been a frequent speaker at industry and bar conferences and events, most recently as a speaker on the ABA Securities Litigation, SRO Subcommittee’s May 2012 panel presentation in New York: Regulatory Exams: FINRA Priorities and Firm Best Practices.