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Too Good to Pass Up for MF Global's New General Counsel Laurie Ferber
Corporate Counsel
November 05, 2009
MF Global GC Laurie Ferber
During her 21-year tenure at Goldman Sachs & Co., Laurie Ferber encouraged her lawyer colleagues to "get their hands dirty down on the trading floor."
Lawyers' direct participation in the day-to-day operations of a company is good for business, according to Ferber. "I couldn't imagine it any other way," she says.
Ferber will be plenty involved at her new job as general counsel of MF Global Ltd., a broker for exchange-traded futures and options. The appointment was announced on June 22. Following a transition period, Ferber will replace Howard Schneider, who is retiring.
In her new role, Ferber will spearhead the company's corporate strategy, including corporate governance policies and other company procedures. MF Global has a balance and corporate structure that fit in with "the way regulators see the world going," Ferber says.
Ferber started her career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where she worked as an associate for three years. After brief stints at Drexel Trading Group, Inc., and Schulte, Roth & Zabel, Ferber joined Goldman in 1987. She spent the next two decades there and held a number of business and legal positions, most notably that of co–general counsel of Goldman's division of fixed income, currency, and commodities. When Ferber first started at Goldman in 1987, she was one of just nine lawyers employed by the global investment bank. Over the years, as Ferber helped integrate the role of lawyers into the company's business practices, that total swelled to about 240.
But when Goldman became a bank holding company last fall, Ferber decided that it was time for a change. She quickly jumped on board as general counsel and chief regulatory officer at the International Derivatives Clearing Group. After just four months with the IDCG, she left for MF Global. (MF Global is a member of IDCG.)
Ferber says the decision to take the job at MF Global was one she made with her family's input. Her duties at MF Global will require quite a bit of travel as the company—which already has a presence in 14 countries—explores business opportunities in growth markets. But Ferber signed on with MF Global with little hesitation: "I know when an opportunity is too good to pass up."
