CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson today announced that Tamika Bent has joined her executive staff as Chief Counsel.
“Tamika is a seasoned derivatives lawyer with more than 15 years of experience, including many years as a senior attorney in private practice, as in-house counsel, and as an academic,” said Commissioner Johnson. “She has significant expertise in the derivatives markets and extensive knowledge about the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act financial reforms.”
“Tamika has a deep understanding of the central values that motivate my service as a Commissioner, including customer and taxpayer protection, the safety and soundness of the derivatives markets, the promotion of market integrity, financial stability, and transparency, and the rigorous enforcement of compliance with registration, disclosure, and reporting obligations. I am excited to welcome Tamika as Chief Counsel, and I look forward to working closely with her as she supports my office at the CFTC and the Market Risk Advisory Committee,” Commissioner Johnson added.
“The opportunity to work with Commissioner Johnson is a privilege and an honor,” said Ms. Bent. “Commissioner Johnson is deeply thoughtful in her approach to regulating the derivatives markets. I am eager to leverage my expertise to execute on her priorities around CCP risk and governance, climate-related risk, market structure, and innovative and emerging technologies affecting the derivatives and related financial markets.”
Tamika joins the CFTC from Linklaters, where she served as Counsel in the Financial Regulatory Group, and was previously at Milbank and Allen & Overy. Tamika’s practice has focused on complex derivatives, banking, and broker-dealer regulatory, transactional, and related bankruptcy matters.
Tamika has provided advice and counsel on matters related to listed and OTC derivatives and securities markets, including regulations applicable to domestic and foreign banks, broker-dealers, swap dealers, security-based swap dealers, futures commission merchants, trade associations, trading platforms, and end-users. She has advised clients on diverse and wide-ranging issues across regulations adopted by the CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission, and prudential regulators, including clearing, trading, margin, reporting, recordkeeping, registration and ongoing obligations, among others, applicable under the Dodd-Frank Act. Tamika also advised clients on the transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR); recovery, resilience, and other considerations under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; and CCP due diligence standards and clearing member CCP risk assessment.
More recently, Tamika has offered critical advice and counsel on new and evolving technologies and markets, with a focus on cryptocurrencies, tokenized securities, and voluntary carbon credits.
Tamika was an adjunct professor at New York Law School, teaching a course in financial markets regulations. Complementing her substantive legal skills, Tamika has been active in the derivatives community. She participated in bar associations as a member of the New York City Bar Association’s (NYCBA) Futures and Derivatives Regulations Committee, NYCBA’s Working Group on Cryptocurrency and the UCC, and New York State Bar Association’s Derivatives and Structured Products Law Committee.
Tamika has served as a speaker at key derivatives industry conferences and seminars hosted by the Futures Industry Association and International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) on topics affecting the derivatives markets, such as LIBOR transition and CCP risk. She has contributed to industry thought leadership and has published an article on the ethics of civility and the derivatives legal community in the Futures and Derivatives Law Report. In 2022, Tamika participated in the inaugural ISDA leadership program, co-authoring an ISDA paper on the use of technology in the context of regulatory reporting and digital assets as collateral.
Born in Jamaica, Tamika is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is involved in a number of diversity initiatives and a member of Women in Derivatives (WIND).
Tamika graduated, magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany, where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. She obtained a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School, a Master 1 en Droit in French Law from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and an Executive Master of Science in Finance, with distinction, from HEC Paris.
