Conference | September.09.2025 | 9am - 5pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
New York City Bar AssociationHow are digital assets, crypto, and other fintech innovations reshaping global payment systems? Explore the impact of these technologies at the New York City Bar Association’s 2025 Fintech Conference on Sept. 9, featuring discussions on the legal, regulatory, and practical implications of a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.
Lorraine McGowen serves as Program Chair and will moderate a timely discussion on the “Expansion of Financial Institutions & Other Entities into Crypto and Other Digital Asset Transactions” with fellow Orrick partner, Ignacio Sandoval. We hope to see you there!
CLE Credits Available: Y
New York
Lorraine brings 30+ years of legal experience in bankruptcies, out-of-court restructurings, sovereign debt restructurings and creditors' rights controversies. She interfaces with auditors, government regulators, investment bankers and others, and develops and implements mediation and litigation strategies, and negotiates reorganization plans and complex corporate and finance documents. She also regularly provides commercial law and bankruptcy advice in connection with securitization, M&A, energy & infrastructure and general corporate transactions.
Lorraine has represented various stakeholders in bankruptcies, workouts, distressed debt transactions, sovereign debt restructurings, bankruptcy litigation, derivatives and distressed acquisition matters such as Suriname, Belize, Puerto Rico, Takata Corporation, Windstream, GTT, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Lehman, MF Global, Indiana Toll Road, Chemtura Corporation, Tronox Incorporated, South Bay Expressway, American Dream School, Detroit, General Motors and Stone & Webster.
Lorraine is Partner in Charge of Orrick’s global Inclusion & Belonging Initiatives. She previously served two terms on the firm’s 11-member Board of Directors and as a member of the Management Committee, and she also previously chaired the Restructuring Group.
As a leading Inclusion & Belonging advocate, Lorraine creates programs for the legal profession and the community. She was selected as a 2019 Rainmaker by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), 2025 Private Practitioner of the Year by the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, as one of Savoy Magazine’s Most Influential Lawyers for 2024, 2022, 2018 and 2015, and received Legal Outreach’s Pipeline to Diversity 2017 Champion Award and the New York City Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion 2012 Champion Award. IFLR1000 Rankings named Lorraine a leading lawyer in the U.S. She was selected by Direct Women to be a 2016 Board Institute member. She is a frequent speaker and author on bankruptcy and insolvency and diversity and inclusion.
Among her community involvement, she is a former Vice President and Board Member of the New York City Bar Association and currently co-chairs the City Bar's Digital Assets Task Force. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession and the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, where she is chair of the board, and on the Advisory Committees for Legal Outreach and the Vance Center for International Justice of the City Bar, where she serves as co-chair of the Advisory Committee of the Vance Center.
Washington, D.C.
Ignacio engages with the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on behalf of clients on critical matters related to their business by seeking regulatory relief, interpretive guidance, exemptions and as a subject matter expert in enforcement and examination matters. He advises major U.S. broker-dealers in their clearing, retail, trading and institutional businesses, and on their financial responsibility and operational obligations.
Ignacio has counseled numerous broker-dealers on their obligations under the net capital rule (Rule 15c3-1), the customer protection rule (Rule 15c3-3), margin (Regulation T, Regulation U, Regulation X, FINRA Rule 4210, etc.), recordkeeping and reporting rules (Rule 17a-3, Rule 17a-4, Rule 17a-5, Rule 17a-8, Rule 17a-11, Rule 17a-13, etc.) and other middle office and back-office requirements. He has drafted market standard clearing and custody agreements for broker-dealers and has experience working on various types of agreements affecting market intermediaries and participants, including trading agreements, customer agreements, distribution agreements and platform agreements.
Ignacio regularly registers and provides support to alternative trading systems (ATS) and counsels market participants regarding their obligations to register as such. In addition, he has helped broker-dealers develop management platforms for clients involving money market funds and other cash equivalent instruments. He also has experience with cash sweep programs involving money market funds and bank deposit programs insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Ignacio’s experience also includes matters relating to domestic and foreign broker-dealer registrations, customer account statement and confirmation requirements, mergers and acquisition brokers, anti-money laundering obligations for buy-side and sell-side participants, transaction confirmations and outsourcing broker-dealer technology and platforms. He counsels foreign exchanges and foreign clearing organizations regarding U.S. regulatory obligations on the access of U.S. person to foreign options markets and security-futures products.