Report: Cuomo Considering Replacing NY's Top Financial Regulator
A report said Cuomo is considering replacing Maria Vullo as head of the Department of Financial Services with Linda Lacewell, who currently serves as his chief of staff.
December 06, 2018 at 03:56 PM
5 minute read
There may be a change in leadership coming to the state Department of Financial Services at the beginning of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's third term, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
It was reported Thursday afternoon that Cuomo is considering replacing Maria Vullo as head of the financial regulator with Linda Lacewell, who currently serves as his chief of staff.
Plans for the reshuffle are unconfirmed. A spokesman for Vullo did not respond to an inquiry for comment on the report and Cuomo's office declined to confirm the move in a statement on Thursday.
“We do not comment on appointments until they are made,” said Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Cuomo.
The switch would give DFS its third permanent superintendent in as many terms for Cuomo. The agency was created in 2011 and led by former Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, who left in 2016 to start his own legal and consulting firm.
Vullo was brought on shortly after Lawsky's departure and a few bumpy, interim agency heads. She was previously of counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in Manhattan, where she was a partner for two decades. Before her time in private practice, Vullo oversaw the Economic Justice Division in the New York Attorney General's Office, where she supervised a staff of approximately 200 individuals.
She's had a long career in the legal industry, where she's litigated matters involving securities, real estate, insurance, consumer protection, and other areas of law. She's argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and Tenth circuits. She's also argued in state courts, including the Appellate Division.
Her career almost took a different direction at one point. Vullo was twice selected by the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination to be a candidate for associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals. She clerked for U.S. District Judge John Mackenzie of the Eastern District of Virginia. She is a graduate of New York University Law School.
Vullo's tenure as head of the state's banking and insurance regulatory agency was not her first stint in state government. She was previously a top aide to Cuomo when he was the state's attorney general from 2007 until the end of 2010. That's when she served as executive deputy attorney general for economic justice. The job oversees the investor protection, antitrust, real estate finance, consumer frauds and internet bureaus in the office.
She led several high-profile cases leading that division. Among them were actions which resulted in settlements with former hedge fund manager Ezra Merkin and Ivy Asset Management for alleged fraud relating to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Vullo also investigated and brought an action against Ernst & Young for losses to investors resulting from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
Before her work in the attorney general's office, she litigated a few significant cases involving some pro bono work. She represented women raped by soldiers during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, which resulted in a $745 million jury verdict for the plaintiffs. She also represented abortion providers in a case where they were threatened in an online “hit list.” The case ended with a $100 million jury verdict for those providers.
Vullo's tenure at the DFS has been turbulent at times, mostly when it comes to litigation involving the agency.
After DFS promulgated regulations intended to curb the practice of title insurance companies passing along marketing and entertainment costs to consumers, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice struck down the rule in a decision earlier this year.
The state has appealed that decision, which is currently under review by the Appellate Division, First Department. A ruling is expected soon on the appeal, which was argued before the panel in October.
The agency has been more successful in other litigation in recent months. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in August from UnitedHealthCare against DFS over its decision to establish its own risk adjust program for health insurance companies.
The regulation was promulgated to allow the agency to collect funds from certain health insurers who received funding from the federal risk adjustment program established under the Affordable Care Act and redistribute that money to other insurers who may have been negatively impacted by the program. The rule has been paused while the district court's decision is appealed.
Vullo has also been at the center of a lawsuit against the state from the National Rifle Association, which alleged her official actions as superintendent may in the future cause financial hardship for the advocacy group. The state recently lost a motion to dismiss the case, which is scheduled for a status conference in Albany this month.
Lacewell, Vullo's reported replacement, has also been active in the legal industry during her career. Before her appointment as Cuomo's chief of staff, Lacewell held positions in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and as special counsel to Cuomo during his time as governor and state attorney general.
READ MORE:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllBig Law Partner Presented With State Bar's Scheindlin Award
'A World of Credit': Ex-FTX Executive Gary Wang Sentenced to Time Served Following Cooperation
Manhattan Prosecutors Say They Will Oppose Efforts by Trump Legal Team to Dismiss Case
Trending Stories
- 1Simpson Thacher Replenishes London Ranks With Latest Linklaters Defection
- 2Holland & Knight, Akin, Crowell, Barnes and Day Pitney Add to DC Practices
- 3Squire Patton Boggs Associate Among Those Killed in String of Methanol Poisonings
- 4Womans Suit Alleging Negligence to Sex Trafficking by Hotel Tossed by Federal Judge
- 5More Big Law Firms Rush to Match Associate Bonuses, While Some Offer Potential for Even More
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250