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September 17, 2015 at 12:53 PM
LPL Financial (LPLA) named Emily Gordy executive vice president and deputy general counsel on Thursday. She will begin work at the independent broker-dealer effective Monday and will oversee regulatory inquiries and investigations group within the legal department, reporting to General Counsel David Bergers.
Gordy joins LPL from Shulman, Rogers, Gandel, Pordy & Ecker. Prior to this role, she spent 27 years as a regulator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In addition, she worked for the National Association of Securities Dealers and the SEC.
“I am thrilled that Emily is joining our team,” Bergers said in a statement. “Her profound understanding of the industry and the regulatory landscape, coupled with her desire to deliver the best outcomes for investors and our advisors, make her an extremely valuable addition to LPL.”
The IBD also says it set up a Regulatory Counseling group that will provide all business units with advice and counsel about ”regulatory, compliance and risk matters.” The group includes an internal investigations unit and is led by James S. Shorris, executive vice president, deputy general counsel and a former FINRA enforcement chief who joined LPL in 2011.
Compliance staff at the IBD have been busy as of late.
Earlier this year, FINRA levied a $11.7 million charge against the IBD for supervisory failures in the sale of complex products and ordered that $6.3 million be paid in restitution for failing to waive mutual fund upfront charges to certain retirement plans and charities.
In 2014, LPL spent $36 million on regulatory charges. Recently, it has added nearly 400 employees to its compliance, legal and control staff. As a result, the IBD “tracked several areas of exposure generally involving the thoroughness or completeness of our processes and systems of supervision and surveillance of several complex products,” according to Chairman & CEO Mark Casady, who discussed compliance matters with equity analysts after the firm released its second-quarter earnings in early-August.
