Commodities, Futures & Derivatives

Cahill’s Commodities, Futures & Derivatives practice delivers comprehensive legal counsel across the full spectrum of derivatives markets, establishing us as a premier destination for financial institutions, corporations, and investment funds navigating today’s complex regulatory and transactional landscape.

With unparalleled knowledge spanning OTC derivatives, exchange-traded products, structured transactions, and regulatory compliance, we provide comprehensive solutions that drive our clients’ most critical business objectives.

Our team represents the world’s leading financial institutions, major corporations, commodity trading houses, hedge funds, private equity firms, and emerging fintech companies in their most complex and high-stakes derivatives transactions. From Fortune 500 corporations implementing sophisticated hedging strategies to global banks structuring innovative products, our clients rely on our market-leading capabilities to execute transformative transactions and navigate evolving regulatory requirements.

We excel across all major derivatives asset classes, including interest rate swaps, digital asset derivatives, commodity derivatives, credit derivatives, equity derivatives, and foreign exchange products. Our comprehensive capabilities encompass transaction structuring and documentation, ISDA master agreement negotiations, clearing and margining requirements, cross-border regimes, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

Our regulatory experience is unmatched, with a deep understanding of Dodd-Frank Act compliance, CFTC and SEC regulations, Basel III capital standards, and the evolving regulatory framework governing digital assets and cryptocurrency derivatives. We regularly counsel clients on regulatory strategy, enforcement matters, and compliance program development.

Regulatory & Compliance

We guide existing CFTC and SEC registrants, as well as prospective registrants in the digital asset space, on strategy, compliance, and developments related to the expanding CFTC, NFA, and SEC regulatory landscapes. Our team provides strategic counsel on new products such as perpetual futures, helping clients integrate these innovations into existing regulatory frameworks while advising markets, intermediaries, market participants, and protocol developers on compliance requirements.

Enforcement & Investigations

Our regulatory compliance work naturally extends to representing companies and their executives in civil litigation, Department of Justice criminal actions, state-level regulatory issues, self-regulatory organization disciplinary actions, and federal enforcement matters. We are deeply experienced in the Commodity Exchange Act’s broad anti-fraud and anti-manipulation provisions, representing clients in DOJ and CFTC investigations and actions and self-regulatory organization disciplinary actions.

Legislative & Regulatory Development

We actively track legislative developments affecting participants in the derivatives markets, helping clients prepare for regulatory changes and position for market advantages. Our team leverages relationships and provides strategic guidance through formal comment processes, CFTC and NFA meetings, and rule development initiatives.

Transactional Services

We advise on the structuring, negotiation, and documentation of derivatives transactions, including those in syndicated loan facilities. Our experience with loan-linked swaps and deal contingent hedges enables us to provide banks and end users with sophisticated transactional support across complex derivative structures.