WASHINGTON — Robert Fippinger, senior counsel at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board director since 2010, plans to join the MSRB as its chief legal officer on March 3, the board announced. Michael Post has been promoted to general counsel for regulatory affairs.
Fippinger, who resigned from the board on Tuesday, plans to leave Orrick, where he has practiced for the past 23 years.
His position is a newly created one and he will be responsible for all MSRB legal and external affairs, working from the self-regulator's office here.
"The MSRB is pleased to bring in-house the man who literally wrote the book on 'The Securities Law of Public Finance,'" said MSRB executive director Lynnette Kelly. "Bob's knowledge of municipal securities law is unparalleled and he has made enormous contributions to the municipal market, including serving on the MSRB board of directors. We are excited to draw upon his talents even more as he assumes this leadership position."
Fippinger, who has been involved in municipal securities laws and rules for 45 years, will join the MSRB as it develops a regulatory framework for municipal advisors and initiatives to increase muni price transparency. He will oversee market regulation, communications, education and outreach, and legislative affairs, as well as professional qualification and enforcement support programs, and corporate governance.
Post is continuing as a policy advisor to the MSRB and its board of directors, but is taking on additional responsibilities, including managing regulatory relationships and professional qualifications regulations for municipal securities dealers and municipal advisors.
"Since joining the MSRB in 2013, Mike has quickly made significant contributions and in his new role, he will focus his exceptional skills on rulemaking and policy issues, as well as key relationships with other regulators," Kelly said.
The appointments come after Ernie Lanza resigned as the MSRB's deputy executive director last summer and Gary Goldsholle stepped down as the board's general counsel in October. Lanza joined Greenberg Traurig and Goldsholle became deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's trading and markets division.
Before joining Orrick, Fippinger was a partner and an associate at Hawkins, Delafield & Wood. He has been an adjunct associate professor of law at the New York University School of Law, a visiting lecturer in Law at Yale University Law School and an adjunct law professor at Hofstra Law School. He annually updates The Securities Law of Public Finance, which was first published in 1986.
He received a bachelor's degree from Duke University, masters and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
Post, prior to joining the MSRB, was at the SEC for about 10 years. He was counsel to former SEC chairs Christopher Cox and Mary Schapiro, advising on legal and policy matters arising mostly out of the divisions of trading and markets and enforcement as well as the Office of Municipal Securities.
Most recently, he was a senior counsel in the SEC's appellate litigation group. Before first joining the SEC, Post was an associate at Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood LLP. He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Jr., on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and a law degree from The George Washington University Law School.
