John V. Ayanian is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Investment Management and Securities Industry Practice. Mr. Ayanian's practice focuses on the regulation of broker-dealers and the securities markets.

Mr. Ayanian advises broker-dealer clients on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters, including federal and state registration and compliance issues; SRO membership and compliance issues; mergers and acquisitions involving broker-dealers; issues involving the trading of fixed-income securities, exchange-traded options, and exchange-traded funds; broker-dealer and investment adviser networking and compensation arrangements; and issues relating to the dissemination of securities analyst research reports. Mr. Ayanian also counsels various market centers on issues involving market structure issues in the equity and options markets.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Ayanian was a vice president and assistant general counsel with First Union Corporation, where he advised its broker-dealer subsidiaries. He also served as a staff attorney and Special Counsel in the SEC's Division of Market Regulation, Office of Market Supervision, where he was responsible for the regulation of trading and markets.

Mr. Ayanian is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.