Sherri Venokur’s practice focuses on the negotiation of derivatives documentation for, and the regulation of, both cleared and uncleared derivatives.
While representing major investment banks during 2016 and 2019, Ms. Venokur negotiated new collateral arrangements for many of the banks’ trading partners in order to comply with the Dodd-Frank initial and variation margin requirements. Capitalizing on that experience, she drafted users guides for the banks’ negotiating teams for the ISDA Credit Support Annexes for Variation Margin and Initial Margin and Tri-party Custodian Agreements.
Prior to forming SVENOKUR LLC in 2010, Ms. Venokur was a Member of the Firm and Chair of the Derivatives Practice Group of Lowenstein Sandler PC (2007-2010) and was Special Counsel in the Derivatives and Commodities and Structured Finance Practices of Stroock and Stroock and Lavan LLP (2001 – 2007).
From 1993 – 2001, Ms. Venokur served as Vice President, Transaction Management for Lehman Brothers, Inc., where she was responsible for the global coordination and New York regional management of the firm’s equity and fixed income derivatives documentation and was the chief documentation negotiator for equity and fixed income derivatives and foreign exchange transactions. While at Lehman, she spearheaded a complete revision of the company’s ISDA Master Agreement templates and oversaw the development and implementation of its global documentation policy. Working together with Lehman's credit, audit and technology departments, Ms. Venokur created meaningful risk-based reporting of the firm's derivatives exposures.
Previously, Ms. Venokur served as a Vice President, Legal Counsel at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. and Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at European American Bank.
Ms. Venokur is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.
