Kathleen H. Moriarty

Qualifications and Career Profile

Kathleen H. Moriarty concentrates her practice on financial services matters. She has extensive experience in the establishment and representation of exchange-traded investment companies (ETFs) and was instrumental in the early development of the structure, creation and registration of Standard & Poor’s depository receipts (SPDRs). She has also advised clients on the establishment of various other US ETFs, including iShares, Vanguard Exchange-Traded Funds (VIPERS), ProShares, WisdomTree and IndexIQ. Ms. Moriarty has been actively involved with ETF projects globally, including assisting the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong with the structure and creation of the Hong Kong Tracker Fund and representing the American Stock Exchange and NYSE Arca in connection with the cross-listing of DIA -DIAMONDS Trust (DIAMONDS) on the Singapore Exchange and Euronext N.V. She regularly advises foreign entities and delegations from both public and private sectors with respect to the regulation and operation of US ETFs.

Ms. Moriarty also represents a wide variety of market participants in connection with the creation, structuring and development of other derivative securities and non-investment company exchange traded vehicles (ETVs), such as the SPDR Gold Trust and the US ETFS precious metals trusts. In addition, she represents and counsels broker-dealers and other institutional market participants in connection with trading issues and other securities laws matters relating to the purchase and sale of ETF and ETV shares. She also represents domestic and foreign ETF managers in connection with the licensing of financial indexes as well as index providers licensing their financial products to ETFs.

Ms. Moriarty has been named a New York Super Lawyer, received an honorable mention for her contribution to the Exchange Traded Funds sector at the Capital Link Third Annual Close-End Fund and ETF IR Awards, and is an inaugural member of the ETF Database’s ETF Hall of Fame. She was named an ETP Icon of the Industry in 2012. Ms. Moriarty sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Indexes.

Memberships and Affiliations

She is a member of the ABA Federal Regulation of Securities Subcommittee on Investment Companies and Investment Advisors and the Regulation of Futures and Derivative Instruments Committee. She is also a member of the Investment Management Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar and the Women's Investment Management Forum. She is a member of the NASDAQ Listing and Hearing Review Council and was invited to serve as a panelist at the Joint Meeting on Harmonization of Regulation before the CFTC and SEC in September 2009.

Lectures and Articles

A frequent speaker, Ms. Moriarty presented the Katten seminar “Pooled Vehicles – Entering the Retail Space” in April 2013. She has authored articles published in legal and industry journals, and has appeared on national television on the topic of ETFs and ETVs. She is the author of the chapter entitled “Legal and Regulatory Issues Related to ETFs and Certain Other Exchange-Traded Instruments” in the textbook Exchange-Traded Funds: Conceptual and Practical Investment Approaches (A. Seddik Meziani (ed.), Risk Books, London, June 2009).

Education and Bar Admissions

Ms. Moriarty received her AB from Smith College and her JD from the University of Notre Dame Law School. She is admitted to practice in New York.