Legal Fellow Associate

Location: New York, NY

CompanyFederal Reserve Bank of New York

When you work at the New York Fed, you have the opportunity to make an impact in our communities and across the nation. Our mission-driven, curious, and dedicated colleagues apply their diverse perspectives and unique talents to support the strength of the U.S. economy and stability of the global financial system. At the Bank, we work full-time onsite with our teams. We believe being physically together allows us to draw on our collective strengths, while recognizing that the ability to work flexibly from time to time remains important to achieving our mission.

When you work at the New York Fed, you have the opportunity to make an impact in our communities and across the nation. Our mission-driven, curious, and dedicated colleagues apply their diverse perspectives and unique talents to support the strength of the U.S. economy and stability of the global financial system. At the Bank, we work full-time onsite with our teams. We believe being physically together allows us to draw on our collective strengths, while recognizing that the ability to work flexibly from time to time remains important to achieving our mission.

Legal Fellowship Program

The Legal Fellowship Program is a two-year assignment designed to give a recent law school graduate (including one in a clerkship or legal fellowship) the opportunity to work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Legal Fellow will rotate through the two divisions of the Legal Function within the Legal and Compliance Group.  Through this rotation, the Legal Fellow will have the opportunity to take on a wide variety of legal work, which may include the following types of matters, among others:  financial institution supervision and regulation, market and discount window operations, regulatory enforcement investigations, account and financial services, payments law and regulation, employment, transparency, contracts, and litigation.  The Legal Fellow also will have exposure to compliance work, including in the areas of financial crimes (anti-money laundering, countering terrorism financing, and economic sanctions programs), fraud, sensitive data, Markets Desk trading, ethics and conduct, third-party compliance, controls testing, and risk assessment.

Our Unique Work

The Legal Function's mission is to provide high-quality legal services to the Bank. The function is headed by the Bank's general counsel and is divided into two divisions, each headed by a deputy general counsel:

The Supervision, Markets, and Financial Services (SMFS) division provides legal advice in connection with (i) financial institution supervisory and regulatory matters, including legal support for supervision and regulatory reporting and legal analysis of regulatory applications; (ii) the Bank’s open market, U.S. Treasury auction, foreign exchange, reference rate and discount window operations; (iii) the Bank’s external and sponsored committees; and (iv) the Federal Reserve’s provision of accounts and financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. Treasury and other government agencies, government-sponsored enterprises, foreign central banks and international organizations, and other entities. SMFS also analyzes legislative affairs for the Bank, and the head of the division oversees the Bank Applications Department.

The Enterprise Legal Services (ELS) division provides a range of expertise in support of the Bank’s mission and operations. The Enforcement and Litigation team represents the Bank in litigation and other disputes, advises on litigation risk and oversight matters and, together with the Board of Governors, pursues regulatory enforcement investigations and actions against supervised financial institutions in the Second Federal Reserve District. The Financial Intelligence and Investigations Unit conducts investigations, responds to law enforcement requests, and provides expertise on matters including financial fraud, accounting, and BSA/AML and OFAC-related matters. The Employment and Corporate Matters team advises on employment and labor law matters that impact the Bank’s people, including those related to ethics, immigration, leaves and accommodations, organizational change, and personnel policies, and advises and provides legal support to the Bank’s Freedom of Information Office. The Technology and Contracts team drafts, negotiates and advises on documents relating to the Bank’s procurement of goods and services, software and data licensing, cloud computing, and other technologies as well as matters relating to intellectual property, data privacy and security.

How You’ll Make an Impact as a Legal Fellow

As a Legal Fellow, you will have the responsibilities of a new attorney in the Legal Function.  You will be expected to:

Take ownership of and work on a variety of assigned legal matters, including:

Conducting research and analysis of legal, factual, operational, or policy issues;

Drafting contracts, legal memoranda, briefs, client emails, and other documentation;

Creating and implementing processes to help ensure compliance with law and mitigate legal risk.

Prepare and deliver presentations on timely legal issues.

Advise and build relationships with internal stakeholders.

Develop and maintain relevant technical and practical skills and share that knowledge within the Legal Function.

Contribute to all aspects of the work of the Legal and Compliance Group as requested.

In this role you also will have the opportunity to work on compliance matters, such as performing due diligence work, assisting on policy updates, and ethics and conduct reviews.

The Unique Skill Sets We’re Looking For

Juris doctor, with admission to the New York State bar completed or pending prior to beginning the fellowship.

Must be able to begin work in the same calendar year as graduation from law school or completion of a clerkship or legal fellowship that began immediately following graduation from