As a prominent member of the U.S. derivatives bar for more than four decades, Philip Johnson has left a lasting imprint on both the securities and the futures markets. Early in his career, he helped draft key provisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974 that made the CFTC the sole regulator of the U.S. futures industry. In 1981, while serving as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, he entered into what became known as the Shad-Johnson Accord, a landmark agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that established a clear demarcation of the two agencies’ jurisdiction over equity derivatives and allowed futures on broad-based stock indices to trade without entanglement in jurisdictional disputes. Over the course of his long career, Johnson’s work has helped build some of the most important elements of the legal framework for these crucial markets. He now heads the commodities, futures and derivatives products practice group at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
