Cleary Gottlieb Expands Award-Winning Financial Institutions Group with Addition of Partner Jennifer Morton

Cleary Gottlieb announced today that Jennifer Morton joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in its award-winning financial institutions practice. Her practice focuses on broker-dealer and securities market regulation and transactions.

“Jennifer is a great addition to the Cleary team,” said Jeff Karpf, Managing Partner of Cleary Gottlieb. “As a widely recognized leader in broker-dealer regulation, Jennifer’s arrival significantly deepens our ability to deliver comprehensive financial services regulatory advice to clients around the world. Her addition reflects our continued commitment to investing in the areas that matter most to our clients and reinforces the firm’s position as a leader in financial services matters.”

With more than 20 years of experience, Jennifer is a trusted advisor to clients on a broad range of complex regulatory and transactional matters affecting broker-dealers, including public and private mergers and acquisitions, SEC-registered offerings and private placements of securities, digital assets and blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, the restructuring and expansion of business operations, and trading and markets issues. 

“Thanks to Cleary’s multi-disciplinary approach to client work, Jennifer’s deep knowledge of broker-dealer regulatory regimes will be a benefit to many of our clients, as well as our practice teams,” said Hugh Conroy, Jr., partner and leader of the financial institutions practice. “Issues related to entering U.S. markets, margin and customer protection rules, and market regulations often arise in connection with capital markets transactions, fund formation, enforcement and litigation, and more. We are excited to have Jennifer on board to help our clients navigate these complex issues.”

Recognized by Chambers USA as one of the nation’s leading financial services lawyers, Jennifer has been praised by clients for her “deep understanding of complex market regulations and an ability to develop solutions that consider business priorities.” In recognition of her extensive contribution to the space, she received the 2024 Women in Business Law Financial Regulation Lawyer of the Year Award from the International Financial Law Review.

“I am thrilled to join Cleary Gottlieb,” said Jennifer Morton. “The firm’s market-leading practitioners across complementary regulatory and transactional practices provide an excellent platform to continue advising clients on their most complex matters in this dynamic regulatory environment.”

Prior to joining Cleary, Jennifer was a partner at another international law firm in New York.

Jennifer is the second financial institutions partner to join Cleary in the past month. On April 20, Igor Kleyman joined the practice with a focus on regulatory and transactional matters related to digital assets, artificial intelligence, and fintech. These strategic hires are in addition to the two senior capital markets partners that recently joined Cleary earlier this year.