ABOUT THE LAWSKY GROUP
The Lawsky Group specializes in helping companies, boards, and individuals manage their most complex, emergent and dynamic challenges. The firm provides in-depth counsel and strategic advice on financial services regulation, cybersecurity and cyber-risk, new financial technologies, compliance, consumer protection, privacy, anti-money laundering controls, crisis management, and investigations in the banking, insurance and other related industries.
Benjamin M. Lawsky, Chief Executive Officer of the The Lawsky Group, has over 20 years experience spanning every branch of government, at both the federal and state levels.
Mr. Lawsky is also a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Cyber Initiative, a cross-disciplinary and university-wide project aimed at addressing both the cyber vulnerabilities of today while also developing a framework that will yield effective and resilient policy solutions to emerging problems five and ten years from now.
Mr. Lawsky was New York State’s Superintendent of Financial Services from 2011-2015 where he regulated all New York State-chartered banks, the majority of United States-based branches and agencies of foreign banking institutions, and all insurance companies in New York. He also regulated all of New York State’s mortgage brokers and bankers, check cashers, money transmitters, and similar providers of financial services. In this role, Mr. Lawsky supervised more than 3,800 entities, with assets of more than $7 trillion, and ran an agency with more than 1,400 employees and an operating budget of approximately $250 million.
Mr. Lawsky also served as co-chair of the New York State Cyber Security Advisory Board and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Empire State Development Corporation. He also served on the Joint Forum, an international body made up of banking, insurance and securities regulators from fifteen countries which focused on cross-sectoral issues among the three financial sectors and advised the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commission and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. Mr. Lawsky also served on advisory committees and roundtables related to cybersecurity and insurance at the United States Treasury Department.
Prior to serving as Superintendent of Financial Services, Mr. Lawsky served in a top position in the New York State Attorney General’s office, where he helped run and manage an office of more than 500 attorneys. Previously, Mr. Lawsky spent more than five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted white collar crime, organized crime, and terrorism cases. He began his career as Chief Counsel to Senator Charles Schumer on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
Mr. Lawsky is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Columbia College. Following law school, he clerked for former Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Chief Judge Carol Amon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Mr. Lawsky is also a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Cyber Initiative, a cross-disciplinary and university-wide project aimed at addressing both the cyber vulnerabilities of today while also developing a framework that will yield effective and resilient policy solutions to emerging problems five and ten years from now.
Mr. Lawsky was New York State’s Superintendent of Financial Services from 2011-2015 where he regulated all New York State-chartered banks, the majority of United States-based branches and agencies of foreign banking institutions, and all insurance companies in New York. He also regulated all of New York State’s mortgage brokers and bankers, check cashers, money transmitters, and similar providers of financial services. In this role, Mr. Lawsky supervised more than 3,800 entities, with assets of more than $7 trillion, and ran an agency with more than 1,400 employees and an operating budget of approximately $250 million.
Mr. Lawsky also served as co-chair of the New York State Cyber Security Advisory Board and served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Empire State Development Corporation. He also served on the Joint Forum, an international body made up of banking, insurance and securities regulators from fifteen countries which focused on cross-sectoral issues among the three financial sectors and advised the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commission and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. Mr. Lawsky also served on advisory committees and roundtables related to cybersecurity and insurance at the United States Treasury Department.
Prior to serving as Superintendent of Financial Services, Mr. Lawsky served in a top position in the New York State Attorney General’s office, where he helped run and manage an office of more than 500 attorneys. Previously, Mr. Lawsky spent more than five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted white collar crime, organized crime, and terrorism cases. He began his career as Chief Counsel to Senator Charles Schumer on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.
Mr. Lawsky is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Columbia College. Following law school, he clerked for former Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Chief Judge Carol Amon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
In recent years, Mr. Lawsky has received various honors and awards, including: