Overview
John is a nationally recognized banking attorney who advises financial institutions on regulatory, governance, and investigative matters. He regularly provides focused training sessions to boards and management on a wide range of legal and risk management topics. Working at the forefront of banking law and regulation, John is a thought leader in the field, primarily through teaching, writing, and frequent media interviews.
As the Regulatory Section Leader of BFKN’s Financial Institutions Group, John advises a wide variety of financial institutions around the country about the full spectrum of legal, regulatory, and supervisory issues that they face. He is a frequent speaker and author in the financial institutions area on issues surrounding banking regulations, examinations, and enforcement actions, as well as on cybersecurity.
John devotes significant time to anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and related national security issues. In this regard, he lectures and advises institutions around the country, engages with relevant organizations, and has published on the subject.
Prior to joining BFKN in 1999, John worked as a bank regulator and also as a compliance consultant. He served as legal counsel for the Illinois bank regulatory agency, now the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. John also obtained practical experience with respect to bank operations and compliance issues as a regulatory consultant with a regional accounting firm, performing compliance reviews and training for a variety of financial institutions.
Credentials
Admissions
- State of Illinois
Education
- DePaul University College of Law, J.D., 1995
- American University, B.A., 1992
Experience
Newsroom
News
Speaking Engagements
- Tue, Nov 12, 2024 - Thu, Nov 14, 2024
- September 24, 2024 - September 26, 2024
- June 24-27, 2024
- June 24 – 26, 2024
- June 10, 2024 & June 17, 2024
Publications
Recognitions
- The Best Lawyers in America© (2024)
- Financial Services Regulation Law
Organizations
Affiliations
- American Bar Association, Banking Law Committee
- Vice-Chair
- Chair, Subcommittees on Legislation & Regulation; Enforcement, Insider Liability & Troubled Banks; Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering
- Member, Task Force on Mitigating Director Liability, American Association of Bank Directors
- Member, Resilience Working Group, Business Executives for National Security (BENS)
- Member, U.S. Secret Service Chicago Cyber Fraud Task Force
- Advisor, National Security Fellows Program, Harvard Kennedy School
- Participant, Counterterrorism Simulation, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
- Board of Advisors and President, Midwest Chapter, The Anti-Money Laundering Association
- Illinois Bankers Association
- Thought Leadership Council
- Faculty Advisor, Law & Banking Principles Class
- Chair, Financial Institutions Committee, Chicago Bar Association
- Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)
Teaching
- Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Founding Co-Director, Center for National Security and Human Rights Law
- Founding Co-Director, Consortium for the Research and Study of Holocaust and the Law (CRSHL)
- Adjunct Professor, Banking Law; National Security Law; Holocaust and the Law
- Board of Advisors, Institute for Compliance
- Instructor, Fundamentals of Banking Law
- Boston University School of Law
- University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
- Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Distinguished Lecturer, Master of Arts in Financial Integrity (MAFI) Program, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
- Co-Organizer & Lecturer, War Crimes Seminar, Polish Naval Academy
- Lecturer
- Countering Terrorism Financing, Georgetown University Center for Security Studies
- War Crimes, United States Army Command & General Staff College
- Holocaust and the Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law