CFTC Acting Chairman Christopher Giancarlo announced the appointment of James McDonald as Director of the agency’s Enforcement Division. He joins the CFTC from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and most recently in the Public Corruption Unit. He begins on April 10th.

While at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. McDonald prosecuted a wide variety of cases, including serving as a member of the trial team that successfully prosecuted former Speaker of the NYS Assembly Sheldon Silver for public corruption offenses. Earlier in his career, Mr. McDonald served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and, before that, as a law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Honorable Jeffrey Sutton, Jr.

Mr. McDonald graduated Harvard and UV School of Law. He also served in the Office of White House Counsel, as a Deputy Associate Counsel, and he worked in private practice with Williams & Connolly Law.

Originally from Tulsa, OK, Mr. McDonald has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law, where he taught Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Foreign Relations Law, and Supreme Court Decision making.