Azam Ahmed covers the world of hedge funds for DealBook and the New York Times. He has covered a wide array of stories in his first year on the beat, including the government's widespread probe of insider trading. Mr. Ahmed covered the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group co-founder convicted of using inside information to earn millions of dollars, as well as the most recent wave of charges stemming from the use of expert networks. In addition, he has written extensively about ongoing changes in the industry, including the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul and the institutionalization of the hedge fund industry.

 

David N. Brooks is the General Counsel of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a publicly traded alternative asset investment manager that raises, manages and invests private equity funds and hedge funds. David joined Fortress in 2004 as the Deputy General Counsel from Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he was a corporate associate specializing in public M&A work. David oversees the legal and compliance departments at Fortress in his role as General Counsel.

 

Lisa Conrad joined Angelo, Gordon in 2009 as Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel, and is responsible for firm legal and compliance matters.  Prior to joining Angelo, Gordon, Lisa designed and implemented legal and compliance programs for several SEC-registered investment advisers including, Chancellor LGT Asset Management (now INVESCO (New York)), JP Morgan Investment Management, Stanfield Capital Partners and the Alternative Capital Division of Credit Suisse First Boston, advising  primarily on high yield credit, structured finance, distressed debt, debt capital markets and bank debt.  Additionally, Lisa served as a law clerk to the Senior Judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals and as an attorney adviser at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. Previously, Lisa was Assistant General Counsel at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Lehman Brothers, and served as Associate General Counsel at Primus Asset Management.  Lisa holds a B.A. degree from Wellesley College and a J.D. degree from Catholic University Law School. She is a member of the bar associations of the State of New York and the District of Columbia.

 

Mr. Fogel is the General Counsel of Silver Point Capital, L.P., where he oversees the Firm’s legal and compliance function and serves as a member of the Firm’s Operating Committee.  Prior to joining Silver Point in 2005, Mr. Fogel was a Managing Director and the General Counsel of Ziff Brothers Investments, a private family investment firm with several billion dollars under management. Prior to Ziff Brothers, he served as Executive Vice President of Business Affairs and General Counsel at Tanning Technology Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed information technology company.  Mr. Fogel started his legal career at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he spent 13 years focusing on M&A, private equity, securities transactions and corporate counseling, as an associate from 1986 to 1992, and as a partner thereafter.  Mr. Fogel was a member of the firm’s Steering Committee.  Mr. Fogel also clerked for the Hon. Gary Stein of the New Jersey Supreme Court. 

Mr. Fogel earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School and graduated, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. 

 

Roy Futterman, Ph.D, is a clinical psychologist and trial strategy consultant. He has extensive experience creating mock trials and focus groups, providing strategic analysis and trial recommendations for civil and criminal cases, preparing witnesses, and selecting juries in federal and state courts. Following a career as a creator and manager of an innovative mental health treatment program in a public hospital in the Bronx, Dr. Futterman joined DOAR’s Trial Consulting practice.

As a practicing expert in psychology and trial consulting, he has specialized in the analysis of group dynamics, and has worked toward greater integration of psychological theory and technique into trial consulting. Dr. Futterman uses these clinical skills to prepare individual witnesses for trial and to explore and understand the thoughts and behaviors of groups of mock and actual jurors. He has worked with attorneys to develop persuasive legal strategies for a wide variety of civil and criminal cases including those involving intellectual property, securities fraud, first amendment issues, medical malpractice, entertainment law, contracts, employment, murder and sex crimes. He recently played a substantial role in securing a $250 million jury verdict in the gender discrimination class action trial Velez et. al. v Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., selecting the jury, preparing the plaintiff and expert witnesses, creating and analyzing focus group research, and providing ongoing live trial strategy consultation.

Dr. Futterman has published journal articles and book chapters on such topics as juror Internet use, psychologically-based witness preparation techniques, and various psychological topics. Dr. Futterman received his B.S. from Boston University and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Derner Institute at Adelphi University.

 

Noah Greenhill is the General Counsel and a Managing Director of Highbridge Capital Management.  Mr. Greenhill joined Highbridge in 2004 and, in his role, oversees the firm’s legal and compliance functions on a global basis.  He is a member of Highbridge’s Operating Committee and is the Secretary of the Board of Managers.  Prior to joining Highbridge, Mr. Greenhill was part of the International Capital Markets practice at Allen & Overy LLP, where he specialized in financial derivatives and structured finance.  Mr. Greenhill also served as law clerk to the Hon. Wilfred Feinberg of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

Mr. Greenhill received an M.A. in Economics at Boston University, where he was a doctoral candidate in Econometrics.  He received a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar and a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review.

 

Brian Guzman is a Partner and General Counsel of Indus Capital Partners, LLC (“ICP”). Brian joined ICP in August 2005 as a Managing Director and Counsel. Prior to ICP, Mr. Guzman spent five years with the law firm of Seward & Kissel LLP in New York where he was a Senior Associate in the Investment Management Group. Mr. Guzman specialized in the formation and structuring of private investment funds (both domestic and offshore), private equity funds and registered investment companies, and representation of registered and unregistered investment advisors.

Mr. Guzman graduated magna cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in June 2000. In 1993 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management and Industrial Relations from the Stern School of Business, New York University.

 

Mr. Komitee is the General Counsel of Viking Global Investors LP, overseeing all legal, compliance and regulatory matters for the firm. Prior to joining Viking, Mr. Komitee was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, where he served as Chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section.  From 1998 to 2000, he was an Associate at Skadden, Arps, specializing in regulatory, compliance and white-collar crime matters.  From 1996 to 1998, he was an Associate in the Corporate department of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, focusing on securities underwriting and mergers and acquisitions transactions. Mr. Komitee served as a law clerk to the Hon. J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals following law school.  He graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review, and Emory University (1992), with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa.

 

Simon M Lorne has served in a wide variety of public sector, academic and private sector positions during the course of his career.  In the public sector, he was most notably General Counsel of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, that agency’s principal legal position, with responsibilities that included advising the Commission on all matters that came before it.  He served in that role from 1993 to 1996 under Chairman Arthur Levitt.  In the academic sphere, he is currently the co-director of Stanford Law School’s Directors’ College, the United States’ premiere institution for the education of independent directors of publicly held corporations, and is an adjunct professor at the New York University Law School and the NYU Stern School of Business.  He has previously held positions on the faculties at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the University of Southern California Law School.

In the private sector, Mr. Lorne has since 2004 been the Vice Chairman and Chief Legal Officer of Millennium Management LLC, a multi-strategy hedge fund manager based in New York, with offices throughout the world.  Prior to joining Millennium he was a partner in the Los Angeles-based law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP (from 1972 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2004); the global head of internal audit at Salomon Brothers (now a unit of Citigroup) (from 1996 to 1998); and the global head of Compliance at Citigroup (1998-1999).  He also serves on the Board of Directors and audit committee of Teledyne Technologies, Inc.

Throughout his professional career Mr. Lorne’s endeavors have involved the complementary fields of securities regulation and internal organizational controls—including, in the latter case, the roles of the legal, compliance and internal audit functions within organizations, and the supervisory role of boards of directors and their committees, primarily the audit committee.  He has studied and evaluated those activities from a regulatory and an academic perspective, as well as from an advisory perspective in his practice as a lawyer in the private sector.  He has also personally overseen the execution of those functions, having served as a corporate head of compliance, a corporate head of internal audit, a chief legal officer and on the audit committees of  publicly held corporations.  As a result of the breadth and depth of his background, both theoretical and practical, he is often asked to review and comment upon principles regarding corporate controls and the efficacy of different organizational control models.

Mr. Lorne has authored two books (“Acquisitions and Mergers: Negotiated and Contested Transactions,” and “A Director’s Handbook of Cases”), three practitioner-oriented monographs and a number of articles in law reviews, magazines and other publications.  He is a frequent speaker at academic and industry symposia dealing with issues in the areas of securities regulation, ethics and internal controls.

Mr. Lorne is a graduate of Occidental College, with an A.B. (cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and the University of Michigan Law School (J.D., magna cum laude).

 

Elana Margulies is currently Senior Reporter for HFMWeek magazine, where she focuses on the North American alternative investment industry. She previously reported on hedge funds for Institutional Investor’s Alternative Investment News. Prior to starting her financial journalism career, she reported on local news in New Jersey and Boston. She received her B.A. in American Studies and Journalism from Brandeis University and a Master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is on the host committee for Young Jewish Professionals in Hedge Funds and Private Equity.

 

Brian Meyer has been General Counsel of Fir Tree Partners since 2005.  Brian is responsible for overseeing the firm’s legal, compliance, human resources and regulatory matters.  Prior to joining Fir Tree, Brian was a Managing Director at Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media-focused private equity firm and investment bank.  From 1997 until 2004, Brian worked closely with Fir Tree Partners as General Counsel of The Official Information Company, a Fir Tree investment.  From 1993 to 1997, he was Senior Corporate Counsel at Revlon, Inc.  Brian began his professional career specializing in M&A, corporate, securities and banking law at the law firms of Latham & Watkins (1990 – 1993) and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy (1986 – 1989).  Brian received a J.D. degree from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall (1986), where he was Executive Editor of the California Law Review, and received a B.A. in History and graduated magna cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley (1982).

 

As CEO of DOAR Litigation Consulting and a principal consultant, Paul Neale has leveraged over 25 years of managing complex litigation matters to build one of the industry’s fastest-growing companies. Under his direction, DOAR has become the only company that has centralized all services needed to manage large, complex litigation matters. Paul has assembled a management team of experts in the fields of electronic discovery, jury consulting and trial presentation to create an organization whose scope of services and expertise is unmatched. Nationally recognized as an expert in overall case management with an emphasis on the management and production of electronic evidence and the use of technology at trial, Paul is a published author, speaker and accredited CLE instructor. He consults clients on implementing best practices, the current state of the law as it relates to the evolution of the rules of evidence, and the impact of technology in displaying evidence on jurors’ decision-making.

Paul is a testifying expert in state and federal courts regarding the proper preservation, management and production of electronic stored information (ESI) and routinely supports clients in their negotiations with opposing counsel or regulatory/government agencies. He testified before the advisory committee that drafted FRE 502 dealing with privilege waiver, and his testimony led to the committee’s note regarding the defensibility of the use of alternative technologies in the production of ESI. He has prepared affidavits outlining best practices in the handling of electronic evidence and the defensibility of response programs on behalf of his clients. He is also a member of the Sedona Conference.

Paul graduated from Temple University with a BA degree and has taken advanced courses at the Wharton School of Business. He is a member of the board of directors of Vacamas Programs for Youth, which provides educational and vocational programs for underprivileged youth in NY, NJ and PA.

 

Mike is responsible for all legal, compliance, human resource and administrative matters at Perry Capital, L.L.C.  Prior to joining Perry Capital in 2005, Mike was the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at RHG Capital, L.P., Chief General Counsel at Andor Capital Management, L.L.C., and General Counsel of Soros Private Funds Management LLC and Deputy General Counsel of Soros Fund Management LLC.  Mike began his professional career as an associate at Coudert Brothers in Singapore and New York.  Mike received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame. Mike is a frequent lecturer on hedge fund topics and testified at the Securities and Exchange Commission's Hedge Fund Roundtable in 2003. Mike is currently chairman of the investment advisory subcommittee, and formerly a member of the Executive Committee, of the Managed Funds Association, the primary trade organization of the hedge fund industry.

 

Marc D. Powers has led the National Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Practice Team since joining Baker Hostetler in 2004.  He has practiced in securities regulation, litigation and enforcement for over 30 years. Mr. Powers is regularly consulted by clients and the media on securities laws issues, particularly those involving insider trading given his representation of Douglas Faneuil in the Martha Stewart/ImClone civil and criminal cases.  Mr. Faneuil’s moral and legal issues in these matters, and Mr. Powers’ representation of him, is chronicled in the 2011 book by Pulitzer Prize winning author, James W. Stewart: Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff.

Mr. Powers began his legal career in the public sector for five years as an Enforcement Division Staff Attorney and Branch Chief at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  Since then, he has represented investment firms, broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity firms and mutual funds in regulatory and criminal investigations and proceedings by the SEC, CFTC, FINRA and United States Attorneys’ offices.

Mr. Powers sits on the Advisory Board of the CCH Securities Law Reporter.  He is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Finance degree and has a J.D. from Hofstra Law School.  He received his law school’s Distinguished Alumni Award in April 2006.

 

Steven P. Vincent currently serves as the General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of Brigade Capital Management LLC, an SEC-registered Investment Advisor managing over $8 Billion of client assets.

Prior to joining Brigade, Steve was employed by Goldman, Sachs & Co., as its Associate Director of Litigation and Regulatory Proceedings, focusing primarily on the Fixed Income and Commodities Businesses.

Steve also served as Senior Vice President and Senior Attorney at Lehman Brothers, Inc., and spent a number of years in private practice at the law firms of Jones, Day and Anderson, Kill & Olick.

Steve is a graduate of Boston College, 1979 (B.A., magna cum laude) and Fordham University School of Law, 1983 (J.D.).

Steve has served as a PLI Faculty member; member of the Future’s Regulation Committee of the NYC Bar Association; and, Chair of the Bond Market Association Litigation Committee. Steve presently serves on the MFA SEC Advisor Regulation Subcommittee.

Steve is currently a Trustee of Sacred Heart Academy (Hempstead, New York); a member of the Boston College Wall Street Council Executive Board and a Director of the Fordham Corporate Law Center and member of the Dean’s Law Advisory Committee. Steve previously served as Trustee and Chair of the Board of Xavier High School, New York, New York.