Petal Walker

Petal is a Managing Director in Risk & Financial Advisory/Regulatory & Legal Support, at Deloitte & Touche LLP.  Petal aids banks, brokers, exchanges as well as digital asset exchanges and intermediaries to design processes that are regulatorily compliant.

Petal was formerly Special Counsel at WilmerHale, advising innovators in the digital space, including advising: crypto exchanges on designing their products, determining appropriate rules for membership, and setting appropriate trading rules; firms on the classification of digital assets and whether delivery of crypto constitutes actual delivery; entities that mint cryptocurrencies on the timing of transacting crypto and making public statements; non-US exchanges on reasonable onboarding and surveillance measures; entities on the evolving regulatory landscape for stablecoins; and entities on appropriate custodial arrangements for digital assets.  Petal also helped introduce the first bitcoin-related product to the CFTC.

Petal has also advised market participants such as banks, funds, brokers, commercial companies, exchanges and clearinghouses, about compliance obligations for the derivatives markets.  She rendered advice to these entities regarding the Dodd-Frank requirements in a number of areas, including reporting, mandatory clearing, product definition, segregation of customer funds, risk management and financial resource requirements.

Prior to rejoining WilmerHale, Petal served as chief counsel for Commissioner Sharon Bowen at the CFTC, where she advised on a variety of significant derivatives-related issues —including actual delivery, blockchain, CCP resilience, execution methods, algorithmic trading, reporting requirements, capital, margin, and cross-border harmonization.  Petal also lead the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee.

Petal holds a doctorate in both law and education from Harvard in addition to her Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale University. She also serves as a Director on Women in Derivatives (WIND) and Chair of its Leadership Committee, which helps attract, retain, and develop women in finance.