Partner Donna M. Parisi (New York-Derivatives & Structured Products) spoke at a PLI’s Understanding Financial Products 2012 conference in New York. The conference was located at the PLI New York Center on February 6th and 7th from 9:00 am to 5:15 pm (day one) and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm (day two).

Overview:  The explosion of new financial products over the past decade, the implosion of the credit markets and the resulting significant new regulatory requirements under Dodd-Frank underline the importance of a basic understanding of financial products. While these instruments have been, in the view of many, invaluable investment tools, and have presented enormous potential for product manufacturers and investors, they also create potentially significant legal risks and challenges for their promoters, users, legal counsel and regulators. This seminar was designed as a hands-on learning tool to explain the fundamentals that you need to know when dealing with the more common financial investment products in the marketplace today.

Forum Topics:

• Use of swaps, collars, options, futures and forwards to hedge portfolio positions
• Special issues associated with credit derivatives
• Insolvency issues
• Documentation for derivatives
• Impact of Dodd-Frank: swap trading, clearing and trade reporting