Maggie Sklar
Partner
Admitted to practice only in the District of Columbia. Supervised by partners in the Chicago office.
I provide my clients with the legal, regulatory, compliance, and policy advice they need to navigate the fast-changing financial markets and fintech regulatory landscapes.
Maggie Sklar advises clients on a wide array of regulatory, policy, compliance, and enforcement matters concerning derivatives, securities, blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital assets, and environmental-social-governance (ESG) issues. Maggie has more than 15 years of legal and policy experience advising on financial institutions and financial markets, as well as years of senior-level government experience working for and with U.S. and international financial regulators.
Maggie previously served as Senior Policy Advisor and the Director of International Engagement, Financial Markets Group, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Before joining the Federal Reserve, she worked at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where she held multiple roles, including as the Senior Counsel to the Chairman, the Senior Counsel to a Commissioner, Associate Director of the Office of International Affairs, the Senior Counsel to LabCFTC, and Special Counsel in the Division of Market Oversight. At the CFTC, she advised on legal and policy matters, as well as on rulemakings, applications, new products, examinations, and enforcement actions, touching a wide range of issues: designated contract markets, derivatives clearing organizations, swap execution facilities, broker-dealers, asset managers, fintech, cryptocurrencies, and Dodd-Frank Act rules. She served as a deputy to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), and represented the CFTC in various international forums, including at the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). She also later served as a member of the CFTC's Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC).
Before her government service, Maggie worked for several years as a litigator for global law firms in Washington, D.C. She represented large banks, hedge funds, financial services providers, energy companies, and/or their executives in complex civil litigation, including trials and appeals, as well as in internal and government investigations and enforcement proceedings.
Maggie was an officer at McGonigle, P.C., before the firm combined with Davis Wright Tremaine.
Practice Highlights
Senior government-level experience
In addition to her service as the Senior Counsel to the Chairman of the U.S. CFTC, Maggie also served as Senior Counsel to a CFTC Commissioner, Associate Director in the Office of International Affairs, the Senior Counsel to LabCFTC, and Special Counsel in the Division of Market Oversight. She also served as deputy to the FSOC. In these roles, she collaborated with senior staff at the SEC and US Treasury.
She also represented the CFTC at IOSCO and on international financial markets workstreams, including on market structure, blockchain and cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, swap regulatory equivalence, and other markets and financial stability issues.
She also served as senior policy advisor and director of International Engagement, Financial Markets, for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Thought leadership
Cryptocurrency regulation and policy
Admitted to Practice
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District of Columbia
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Maryland, Inactive
Education
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J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 2005, cum laude
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B.A., Georgetown University, 2001, cum laude
Memberships & Affiliations
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- Chairwoman of the Public Policy and Regulation Committee, Global Digital Asset and Cryptocurrency Association
- Founding Member, Association of Women in Cryptocurrency
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, DC Bar Association
- Member, Women in Housing and Finance