Dispute Resolution President Linda Fienberg to Retire From FINRA

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced that Linda D. Fienberg, President, FINRA Dispute Resolution, and Chief Hearing Officer is planning to leave the organization at the end of November. Ms. Fienberg joined FINRA in June 1996 and has responsibility for FINRA's dispute resolution and disciplinary hearing programs.

Under Ms. Fienberg's leadership, FINRA Dispute Resolution has made tremendous advances in delivering fair, expeditious, and affordable service to investors and other parties who use FINRA's forum. Ms. Fienberg shepherded a number of rule changes that instituted more investor-friendly policies and procedures in FINRA's dispute resolution forum, including the 2011 rule change that gives all investors who file arbitration claims the option of choosing an all-public panel.

"We have been fortunate to have Linda with us for the last 18 years. Linda leaves us with a lasting legacy of excellence, and she has my sincerest appreciation for her years of service, dedication and leadership," said FINRA Chairman and CEO Richard Ketchum.

In addition to her outstanding work as the head of Dispute Resolution, Ms. Fienberg was tasked with building—from the ground up—a new Office of Hearing Officers (OHO). Ms. Fienberg was instrumental in bringing a new Code of Procedure (which governs FINRA's disciplinary process) to life, hiring a group of professional hearing officers and an administrative staff, and establishing OHO's policies and procedures.

Prior to joining FINRA, Ms. Fienberg was a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling. From 1979 to 1990, she was on the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where she held several senior staff positions, including Executive Assistant to two Chairmen and Associate General Counsel in the General Counsel's Office, first for the Litigation section and then for the Counseling and Legislation section. She is a recipient of the SEC's Distinguished Service Award.

Ms. Fienberg received a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she was an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal; an M.A.T. degree from Wesleyan University (Armstrong Award for number one in the class); and a bachelor's degree with Distinction (Phi Beta Kappa) from Cornell University.

FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. FINRA is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. FINRA touches virtually every aspect of the securities business – from registering and educating all industry participants to examining securities firms, writing rules, enforcing those rules and the federal securities laws, informing and educating the investing public, providing trade reporting and other industry utilities, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and firms. For more information, please visit www.finra.org.