Douglas Yatter is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice and the Financial Institutions and Energy – Oil & Gas Industry Groups.

Mr. Yatter’s practice focuses on advising clients across the financial services industry and the energy sector in government and internal investigations, litigation and regulatory matters. His experience with regulation of the commodities markets, including Dodd-Frank and related provisions, enables him to assist large financial institutions, commodity trading firms, energy companies and other clients in navigating a complex and rapidly developing regulatory and enforcement environment.

Mr. Yatter joined the New York office after nearly five years in the Division of Enforcement of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he served first as Trial Attorney and then as Chief Trial Attorney. At the CFTC, Mr. Yatter conducted and supervised investigations and litigation involving a wide range of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations in the financial and energy sectors, including fraud, manipulation, false reporting, spoofing, trade practice abuses, customer protection and insider trading.

During his tenure, Mr. Yatter was a leader of two of the CFTC’s highest profile enforcement matters in recent years, including the investigation of the shortfall in customer funds at MF Global Inc. and the ISDAFIX investigation, involving a key benchmark in the interest rate markets. His work addressed swaps, futures, and other derivatives across various markets, often in coordination with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other domestic and international authorities.

In private practice prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Yatter advised major corporations, boards of directors and individuals in internal and government investigations, including high-profile Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and financial fraud matters. He also represented defendants and plaintiffs in all phases of complex civil litigation, including pre-litigation counseling, trials and appeals, with particular focus on shareholder derivative suits, antitrust matters and transactional disputes.

Mr. Yatter clerked for Judge Dennis Jacobs of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2002 to 2003.