PANELISTS

 

Claire Hall, Partner, DLA Piper

Claire Hall is a Partner in DLA Piper's finance practice specializing in structured finance and derivatives. Claire joined the firm having previously worked at leading law firms in New York, Los Angeles and London. Claire is co-head of DLA Piper's Derivatives Practice and a co-chair of the LIBOR Transition Practice. 

With respect to derivatives, Claire has represented financial institutions, funds, asset managers, dealers and end-users across a full range of derivatives products and the negotiation of related documentation. Claire frequently advises on regulatory and compliance matters affecting derivative transactions and the derivatives market, including with respect to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) including ISDA protocols and related documentation; advising on the migration of OTC products to clearing and the negotiation of cleared derivatives agreements and on-boarding documentation; advising on commodity pool operator and commodity trading adviser issues and global variation margin rules. 

With respect to structured finance, Claire has advised on numerous types of structured products including credit-linked notes, securitizations, structured swaps, and total return instruments. Claire also has significant experience acting as dealer and manager counsel for US market value and cash flow CLOs. Claire's CLO experience includes new issuances as well as refinancing and reissues. Before the financial crisis Claire worked as part of the CLO structuring team at Deutsche Bank in New York. 

Claire has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer Rising Star by the publisher of Law & Politics and Los Angeles magazines (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) and has been recognized by The Legal 500 United States. Claire is licensed to practice in England and Wales, New York and California. 

 

Pia Friis, Managing Director, MUFG Americas

Pia Friis is the International Head of Legal for the MUFG Securities platform and Deputy General Counsel of the Americas and Head of the CIB & Markets Practice Group.

Based in New York, Pia's responsibilities include legal support for all U.S. wholesale lending businesses in MUFG Bank and MUFG Union Bank; including project, trade, supply, commodity, and asset finance; its leasing operations; the two asset-backed commercial paper conduits; the MUFG Securities businesses including its debt and equity underwriting; all sales and trading activities in cash and derivatives in rates, credit and equity as well as the structured products business which includes structured derivatives, ABS underwriting, CLO warehousing, CLO structuring and underwriting. Pia also oversees the corporate affairs function of MUFG Securities Americas and MUFG Securities (Canada) and all corporate litigation; regulatory and human resources matters.

Prior to joining MUFG, Pia spent 8 years at The Royal Bank of Scotland as a Managing Director and Senior Counsel where she held various roles including leading the bank's structured products and derivatives practice; the work-out of RBS's Lehman claim and for the last five years, leading the bank's U.S. regulatory change program which included such projects as swap dealer, IHC and Volcker implementation. Prior to joining The Royal Bank of Scotland, Pia spent 16 years in private practice at Bech Brun (Denmark), Sidley (London and New York) and Linklaters (New York).

Pia earned her first Master of Laws degree from the University of Copenhagen. She holds a Master of Laws degree from each of University College London and New York University Law School as well. Pia is qualified to practice law as an advokat in Denmark, solicitor in England and Wales and in New York as a member of the New York Bar. Pia is a member of the General Counsel's Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the New York State Bar Association.

 

Isabelle Ord, Partner, DLA Piper

Isabelle Ord is a trial lawyer who resolves complex and high-stakes disputes for national and international businesses and financial institutions. She is the co-chair of DLA Piper's Class Action Litigation practice, US co-chair of DLA Piper's Financial Services Sector and a co-chair of the LIBOR Transition Practice.

Her experience includes defending class actions and other complex business disputes involving unfair competition (B&PC 17200), false advertising (B&PC 17500), the Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Civil Code 1750), fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, Ponzi scheme and investment fraud, and lender liability. She also prosecutes claims for financial institutions and businesses, including credit recovery, loan participation and fraud claims.

Isabelle was the 2013 president of the San Francisco Bank Attorneys Association and 2012 chair of the California State Bar's Business Law Section Financial Institutions Committee.

She is a former Captain in the United States Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's Corps, and a paratrooper.

Ashley Washington, Senior Manager, Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory

Ashley Washington is a Senior Manager in Deloitte Advisory, where she co-leads the Contract Lifecycle Management team. She consults clients on the effective use of technology to improve data management, reporting, and remediation through the use of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and other technologies. She has experience in applying Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and has leveraged such automation techniques to deliver large complex contract repapering programs. Ashley is currently the engagement manager for an IBOR Transition Contract Remediation program at a market-leading Tier 1 Global Bank.

Prior to joining Deloitte, she was a Vice President in Digital Transformation at Goldman Sachs focused on evaluating and implementing industry-leading technologies to rapidly solve complex business problems and generate commercial value. She specialized in document digitization including content extraction, data normalization, document management, and contract negotiation processes.

Ashley holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of South Florida and is a candidate in Columbia University's Executive Master of Science in Technology Management program with a concentration in Data Management and Analytics.

 

MODERATOR

Mimi Mengis, Managing Director, Head of Continuous Improvement, MUFG Americas

Mimi Mengis is responsible for leading efficiency and cost reduction efforts across the operations of MUFG Americas, with focus on optimizing the firm's resource location strategy, organization design, reducing third party spend and simplifying/automating processes. Prior to her current role, Mimi managed a variety of functions in Corporate Treasury for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, including capital stress testing and resolution/recovery planning, as well as liquidity risk management, term debt issuance, intercompany funding, rating agency relations and fixed-income investor relations.   

Prior to joining MUFG in 2009, Mimi was affiliated with Promontory Financial Group where she advised financial institution clients on liquidity risk management and capital planning. From 1996 to 2008 she held various treasury positions at Washington Mutual and Providian Financial in wholesale funding, liquidity risk management, fixed income investor relations and securitization. Mimi began her banking career at Union Bank of Switzerland (formerly Swiss Bank Corporation) in New York and London where she was a securitization product specialist.

Mimi holds an MBA in finance from Cornell University, a C.Phil in linguistics from UCLA and BA in Russian language and literature from Wellesley College.