Marlon Q. Paz

Partner

Washington, D.C. / New York
marlon.paz@lw.com
+1.202.654.7101

PRACTICES

  • Capital Markets
  • Derivatives, Equities & Structured Products
  • Digital Assets & Web3
  • Financial Regulatory
  • Investment Funds
  • Latin America Practice
  • Payments
  • Privacy & Cyber
  • Private Equity
  • Public Company Representation
  • Securities Litigation & Professional Liability
  • White Collar Defense & Investigations

INDUSTRIES

  • Financial Institutions
  • Fintech

BAR QUALIFICATIONS

  • California
  • Delaware
  • District of Columbia
  • New York

EDUCATION

  • LLM, Georgetown University Law Center, 2008
  • JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School, 1999
  • MA, Wesleyan University, 1996
  • BA, Trinity College, 1994

LANGUAGES SPOKEN

  • English
  • Spanish

PROFILE

Marlon Paz counsels broker-dealers and other financial services firms in matters related to securities regulation, regulatory enforcement, internal investigations and examinations, and compliance. He also helps clients navigate acquisitions of brokers, dealers, and investment advisers.

Marlon combines government service, academia, and industry focus to help brokerage and advisory firms and individual executives as they manage complex securities laws.

Clients turn to Marlon when faced with complex regulatory matters before the SEC or one of the self-regulatory organizations, such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

  • Status and registration requirements, particularly Rule 15a-6
  • Financial responsibility
  • Short-sale regulation 
  • Automated trading 
  • Sales practice rules
  • Privacy
  • Regulation ATS 
  • Regulation M 
  • Research and Soft-dollars 
  • Clearance and settlement 
  • Credit rating agency regulations
  • Insider trading policies and procedures
  • Rules relating to self-regulatory organizations

Marlon brings clients seasoned and insightful advice drawing on his experience as a senior official at the SEC. Marlon contributed significantly to developing the SEC’s positions on many important regulatory and enforcement matters during his six-year tenure with the agency. He then served as the Inter-American Development Bank’s Principal Integrity Officer. In that role he led the development, investigation, and prosecution of fraud and corruption cases and oversaw compliance procedures relating to integrity due diligence, anti-money laundering, offshore financial centers, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals List.

Marlon is an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he teaches courses on US regulation of financial institutions and securities markets, securities law and the internet, and international business litigation. 

Marlon serves as the American Bar Association Business Law Section’s International Business Law Committee Chair and as Vice-Chair of the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee.  He previously served as the Chair of the Trading and Markets Subcommittee chair. He is the former General Counsel to the District of Columbia Bar, the largest mandatory bar association of lawyers in the United States.

He is also a past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of D.C. and a former national vice president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. He has been honored with the Leadership Award from the Hispanic National Bar Foundation and appointed an ambassador by the American Bar Association Business Law Section.

EXPERIENCE

Marlon’s representative experience includes:

Substantive Responsibility with SEC Regulatory Action 

  • Status as broker-dealer and registration requirements, particularly Rule 15a-6, Exemption of Certain Foreign Brokers or Dealers, 73 FR 39182 (Jul. 8, 2008); Application of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to broker-dealers*
  • Interpretive/no action request under Regulation ATS
  • Short sale regulation and disclosure of short selling activity by money managers, such as Regulation SHO; Rule 10a-3T and Form SH, 73 FR 61678 (Oct. 17, 2008); short sale price tests.* 
  • Regulation M – Anti-manipulation Rules Concerning Securities Offerings, Rule 105 – Short Selling In Connection With A Public Offering, 71 FR 75002 (Dec.13, 2006)*
  • Use of soft-dollars by money managers – Commission Guidance Regarding Client Commission Practices Under Section 28(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 71 FR 41978 (Jul. 24, 2006)*
  • Clearance and settlement – The Roundtable on Proxy Voting Mechanics*
  • Broker-dealer financial responsibility issues – Rule 15c3-1 (net capital) and Rule 15c3-3 (customer protection); Rules 17h-1T and 17h-2T (risk assessment); prime brokerage; PCAOB registration of broker-dealer auditors*
  • Regulations of credit rating agencies – Proposed Rules for Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, 74 FR 63866 (Dec. 4, 2009); References to Ratings of Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, 74 FR 52374 (Oct. 9, 2009); SEC Roundtable to Examine Oversight of Credit Rating Agencies, 74 FR 17698 (April 16, 2009)*
  • Insider Trading Policies and Procedures – Section 15(g), Broker-Dealer Policies and Procedures Designed to Segment the Flow and Prevent the Misuse of Material Nonpublic Information*
  • Self-Regulatory Organizations – Commission Guidance and Amendment to the Rules Relating to Organization and Program Management Concerning Proposed Rule Changes Filed by Self-Regulatory Organizations, 73 FR 40144 (July 11, 2008)*

Enforcement and Examination

  • Certain registered broker-dealers and their executives in an SEC enforcement action charging fraud for failure to provide best execution*
  • A large fund manager and its senior executives in an SEC enforcement action alleging that they improperly accepted travel, entertainment, and other gifts from outside broker-dealers courting trading business that the money manager generated on mutual funds’ behalf*
  • A British trader in an SEC enforcement action alleging insider trading in the United States using derivatives*
  • A hedge fund in an SEC enforcement action involving stock-options backdating* 
  • A hedge fund in an SEC enforcement action alleging market manipulation*
  • A life insurance company and its senior vice president in an SEC enforcement action for their roles in a late trading and market timing scheme*
  • Certain financial professionals in an SEC enforcement action relating to their engaging in a Ponzi scheme*
  • A publicly traded Mexican media company and its senior executive in an SEC enforcement action involving fraud, books and record violations, and internal control deficiencies*
  • A trader in an SEC enforcement action alleging a fraudulent trading scheme involving inverse floating-rate collateralized mortgage obligations*
  • A broker-dealer in an SEC enforcement action relating to its involvement in fraud and an unregistered securities offering*
  • A public pension fund in class action litigation alleging that a large publicly traded telecommunications company committed fraud*
  • A hedge fund in class action securities litigation alleging that a large Italian dairy company committed fraud*

*Matter handled prior to joining Latham