Former CFTC Senior Counsel Danielle Abada joins Mayer Brown

NEW YORK - Mayer Brown today announced that Danielle Abada has joined the firm’s Capital Markets practice as a partner in the New York office. She joins the firm from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where she served as Senior Special Counsel in the Market Participants Division and previously served as Senior Counsel to CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson. 

“We’re pleased to welcome Danielle to our firm,” said firm Chair Jon Van Gorp. “Her experience at the CFTC will benefit clients as they navigate a rapidly evolving derivatives and digital assets regulatory environment that has seen significant innovation and market growth.”

At the CFTC, Danielle advised on complex legal, regulatory, and policy matters affecting CFTC-regulated entities and advanced the Commission’s priorities on regulatory and market developments, including crypto assets and blockchain technologies, prediction markets and event contracts, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to her government service, in private practice, Danielle represented financial institutions and fintechs on a broad range of regulatory, compliance, transactional, and legislative matters. She also advised clients on the use of emerging and evolving technologies, including distributed ledgers, digital assets, and artificial intelligence. Danielle has represented banks, swap dealers, broker-dealers, exchanges, asset and investment managers, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms in a range of banking, derivatives and securities regulatory and transactional matters.

Danielle joins lawyers in the firm’s preeminent Derivatives & Structured Products and Fintech practices. Mayer Brown has been named “Americas Law Firm of the Year (Overall)” at GlobalCapital’s Americas Derivatives Awards for five consecutive years, including most recently in 2026. The firm is ranked in Tier 1 by Chambers USA, IFLR1000 and The Legal 500 US in various derivatives and structured products categories. The firm is also ranked in Tier 1 by The Legal 500 US for Fintech and ranked as a leading firm by Chambers FinTech in five FinTech Legal categories for the United States, including Corporate, Securities, and Financing.