Robin Powers brings over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, offering seasoned guidance to buy-side firms and market participants navigating complex financial products. Her expertise spans a broad spectrum of transactions, including cleared and over-the-counter swaps equity, fixed-income, and foreign exchange derivatives, as well as specialized instruments like total return swaps, credit default swaps, weather derivatives, structured products, securitizations, and other bespoke transactions.
Ms. Powers is a trusted advisor, helping her clients strategize their transactions while ensuring compliance with securities and commodities laws, as well as U.S. state and international regulations. She also addresses cross-border access challenges and navigates overlapping securities and commodities regulations.
Her deep experience working with institutional investors, fund managers, and a diverse range of buy-side clients gives her a unique vantage point on emerging market trends. She delivers tailored, strategic counsel designed to meet her clients’ specific goals, all with an emphasis on efficiency, precision, and solutions that work in today’s dynamic financial landscape.
Ms. Powers extensive background includes negotiating and drafting key agreements like ISDA master agreements, repurchase agreements, collateral and credit support documentation, and securities lending agreements. She also represents investment funds and advisors in their dealings with service providers—whether negotiating with prime brokers, administrators, auditors, or electronic trading platforms. Known for her practical, business-driven approach, she excels at balancing regulatory requirements with her clients’ commercial objectives, ensuring they achieve their business goals while mitigating risk.
Representative Experience
- Provides institutional investors with strategic guidance on the negotiation and documentation of high-value transactions, including overseeing large-scale regulatory initiatives such as UMR (Uncleared Margin Rules).
- Works with regional banks and investment funds to develop and implement hedging programs that effectively mitigate risk while optimizing returns.
- Frequently consults with clients on financial reform legislation, ensuring compliance with Title VII of Dodd-Frank and the cross-border implications of U.S. derivatives legislation.
- Assists market participants in navigating collateral regulatory changes, implementing necessary adjustments, and evaluating counterparty classification elections.
- Manages the negotiation of trading, collateralization, and custodial documentation for clients engaging with U.S., U.K., European, and other global dealers.
- Represents clients in a wide range of disputes related to collateral valuation, ISDA events of default, early terminations, secondary loan trading, novations, and fund liquidations.
Publications and Speeches
- Chair, Speaker, Program on Central Clearing – Central Clearing of Interest Rate Swaps, Hedge Fund Roundtable, June 15, 2010.
- Chair, Program on Central Clearing – Questions and Answers from the Buy-Side Perspective, Hedge Fund Roundtable, Apr. 15, 2010.
- Panelist, OTC Derivatives, American Bar Association Derivatives & Futures Law Committee Winter Meeting, Jan. 29, 2010.
- Speaker, Program on Market Initiatives and Pending Derivatives Regulation, Hedge Fund Roundtable Sept. 29, 2009.
- Speaker, Webinar on Pending Tax Initiatives and Their Impact on Investment Funds, July 28, 2009.
- Speaker, “Pending Investment Adviser Regulation,” Hedge Fund Roundtable, June 11, 2009.
- Author, Monoline Insurers: Confusion and Chaos in the Credit Default Swap Market, Derivatives: Financial Products Report (Vol. 9, No. 7), Mar. 2008.
- Co-Author, Hedge Fund Roundtable, Financier Worldwide, Jan. 2007.
Civic Involvement
- tnAchieves, Student Mentor
Memberships and Affiliations
- New York State Bar Association, Derivatives and Structured Products Law Committee
Education
- Fordham University, J.D.
- New York University, M.B.A.
- Queens College, CUNY, B.A., cum laude
Previous Experience
- Rimôn, Partner
- Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, Partner
Areas of Practice
Admissions
- New York