Legal News

Reed Smith Picks Up Senate Finance Committee Chief Counsel

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Reed Smith has added the former chief minority counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to its Washington, D.C., office.

Mark Oesterle joined the firm?s financial services regulatory practice as of counsel. Oesterle, who worked in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade, is part of the firm?s 220-lawyer financial industry group that focuses on representing banks and financial institutions.

"Mark has an impressive command of every topic addressed by the Dodd-Frank banking legislation and its impact on the financial services industry.  He instinctively understands financial issues from an industry and client perspective," Leonard A. Bernstein, chairman of Reed Smith's financial services regulatory practice, said in a statement. "The recent financial crisis has required a reset in the entire financial services regulatory landscape, which is being shaped right now on a daily basis; having Mark on board to help steward our clients through this process will be a tremendous asset."

Oesterle has had a hand in the crafting of a number of financial-related pieces of legislations, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the financial provisions of the Patriot Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and, most recently, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  He has worked with various financial services regulators while developing such legislation and throughout the regulatory implementation process that follows legislative enactment.  He also has considerable experience with hearings and oversight activity and committee investigations, the firm said.

Oesterle joined the U.S. Senate Banking Committee as counsel in 2001, serving as chief counsel and Republican deputy chief of staff, parliamentarian, senior adviser to the chair, and counsel to the Financial Institutions Subcommittee during his tenure.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on February 04, 2011 (boomark / email).