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Sherri Venokur is a Member of the Lowenstein Sandler Investment Management Practice. Ms. Venokur has extensive experience in the area of derivatives documentation. Her practice, among other areas, focuses on the negotiation of ISDA and other master agreements for derivatives transactions as well as prime brokerage, credit support (including cross margining) and intermediation agreements for dealers, hedge funds and other end-users.
Ms. Venokur counsels both dealer and end-user clients on various documentation issues with respect to interest rate, credit, equity and commodity derivatives, including foreign exchange transactions. Her work has also included revising and annotating ISDA and proprietary documentation templates, helping clients reduce documentation backlogs, clarifying new industry standards as they emerge and conducting training sessions for in-house counsel and risk managers. Ms. Venokur is recognized as a leader in the field of derivatives documentation, having written numerous articles for industry publications and chaired and spoken at derivatives industry conferences.
In the related area of structured finance, Ms. Venokur handles structured transactions, including synthetic CDOs and CDS on ABS transactions and counsels clients on other derivatives components involved in a deal.
Prior to joining Lowenstein Sandler, Ms. Venokur served as Special Counsel for more than six years in the Derivatives and Commodities and Structured Finance practices at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York. Ms. Venokur previously was the Vice President, Transaction Management, for Lehman Brothers, Inc., since 1993. At Lehman, Ms. Venokur was responsible for the global coordination and New York regional management of the company’s equity and fixed income derivatives documentation, and acted as the chief documentation negotiator for equity and fixed income derivatives and foreign exchange transactions. Ms. Venokur spearheaded a complete revision of the company’s master agreement templates as well as the development and implementation of a global derivatives documentation policy aimed at reducing both legal and counterparty credit risk. All these improvements resulted in the elimination of agreement backlogs without increasing staff costs.
In addition to her time at Lehman, Ms. Venokur has a range of corporate and litigation experience on both sides of the legal profession. She served as Vice President and Legal Counsel for ABN AMRO Bank, N.V. (1990-1993); Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of European American Bank (1984-1989); practiced at the law firm of Townley & Updike (1978-1984); and served as a law clerk to the Honorable John M. Cannella, S.D.N.Y. (1976-1978).
Speaking Engagements
- Co-chair, ACI Conference on Negotiating and Tailoring ISDA Master Agreements and Confirmations, March 2008
- ACI Credit Derivatives Boot Camp, June 2007
- Co-chair, American Conference Institute’s (ACI) Conference on Counterparty Relationship Documents for Derivatives and Synthetic CDOs, April 2007
- ACI Derivatives Boot Camp, March 2007, October 2006
- Co-chair, ACI Conference on the 1992 and 2002 ISDA Master Agreements, April 2006, May 2004 (Speaker, May 2005)
- ACI Derivatives and Structured Finance Forum, May 2005
- City Bar Center for Continuing Legal Education’s Conference on Exchange Traded and OTC Derivatives, December 2005, December 2004
- ACI CDOs and Credit Derivatives Conference, May 2003
- Chair, ACI Conference on Credit Derivatives, April 2003
- Chair, ACI Conference on OTC Derivatives, September 2002
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Sherri Venokur comments on minimizing counterparty risk in derivatives and prime brokerage transactions, emphasizing the importance of carefully negotiating the relevant documentation.,
Asset Securitization Report, April 14, 2008
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Sherri Venokur comments on the importance of precise contractual language in CDS contracts, the decrease of contract negotiations following documentation standardization and the probability of more CDO-based litigations in the future.,
Dow Jones, March 20, 2008
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Sherri Venokur comments on the importance of standardization in the derivatives market, noting reduction of credit risk in derivatives transactions and increased volume of trades resulting from the ISDA's publication of standard definitions and templates.,
Asset Securitization Report, February 11, 2008
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Brooklyn Law School
(J.D., 1976),
magna cum laude, Editor-in-Chief, Brooklyn Law Review
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Brooklyn College
(B.A., 1971),
magna cum laude
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New York
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- Chair, Derivatives and Structured Products Committee, Business Law Section, New York State Bar Association, 2003-2006 (Member, 2002-Present)
- Member, ISDA Documentation and Collateral Committees
- Member, Structured Products Association
- Member, Structured Finance Committee and Derivatives Subcommittee, Association of the Bar of the City of New York
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