Kathryn Trkla

Kathryn (Katie) Trkla works on a variety of matters for derivatives exchanges and clearing houses (domestic and foreign), futures commission merchants and securities brokerage firms, institutional investors, professional trading firms, commercial hedgers, and other clients. Katie has close to 45 years of experience in the derivatives and securities industries. She is a partner in the firm’s financial markets regulatory practice within the Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practice; the Business Law Department; the Energy and Innovative Technologies Sectors; and the Blockchain & Digital Assets practice.

Katie’s experience ranges from representing clients on matters before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and self-regulatory organizations; analyzing regulatory proposals; counseling clients on the implications of legislative and rule changes; and providing general regulatory counsel. Her deep experience and background qualify her to provide a broad and unique perspective on the issues and regulations facing the financial markets and market participants.

Katie has a thorough understanding of the regulation of derivatives clearing, protection of customer funds, and issues involving commodity broker bankruptcies. She assists with drafting clearing house rules and rule changes and analyzes the enforceability of clearing house rules. She counsels clients on differences in treatment and protection of funds associated with cleared versus non-cleared derivatives transactions and clearing of swaps versus futures.

Along with a Foley colleague, she served as special commodity counsel to the trustee in the PFG commodity broker bankruptcy. As co-chair of the ABA Part 190 Subcommittee comprised of members of the ABA Derivatives & Futures Law and Business Bankruptcy Committees, Katie co-led the project to draft “model” comprehensive revisions to the CFTC Part 190 Commodity Broker Bankruptcy Rules, which formed the foundation for the comprehensive amendments to Part 190 that the CFTC approved in December 2020. Katie is co-author of Derivatives Regulation, Second Edition, the latest in a series of treatises to carry forward the 1982 landmark Commodities Regulation authored by the late, legendary Philip McBride Johnson. The new edition substantially reorganizes and updates much of the content of the 2004 edition of Derivatives Regulation, bringing to the present over 100 years of derivatives regulation, including the significant changes to the CEA framework following the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act amendments. Katie is also co-author of the chapter on “Commodities Regulation” in Legal Matters in Web 3: A Desk Reference, published in 2024 by the University of Chicago Law School Center on Law and Finance.

Before joining Foley as a partner in 2000, Katie was Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at the Chicago Board of Trade, where she spent a total of 11 years. She started her career as an attorney at the CBOT in 1984. After five years, Katie moved to a mid-sized law firm in Chicago in 1989, where she worked on a range of matters involving regulated futures markets and expanded her work experience to include regulatory matters involving securities markets and broker-dealers. Katie rejoined the CBOT in 1994 at a senior level, where she spent another six years before moving to Foley.

Northwestern University School of Law

JD

University of Chicago

BA