Leslie Payton-Jacobs
Senior Counsel and Managing Director
lpjacobs@emta.org
LESLIE PAYTON-JACOBS
Senior Legal Counsel Managing Director
Leslie Payton-Jacobs is Senior Legal Counsel and Managing Director of EMTA, Inc. Leslie joined EMTA as Senior Counsel in 2002 with primary responsibility for EMTA’s FX-related initiatives. She has also been involved in developing EMTA’s local markets projects, EMTA’s Asia initiatives and a variety of other projects.
Before joining EMTA, Leslie was in-house legal counsel at Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, respectively. She began her legal career as an associate at Shearman & Sterling’s New York office on the bank finance team, where, among other projects, she was involved in the sovereign debt restructurings for Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, representing the bank advisory groups. Following her tenure at Shearman & Sterling, Leslie worked at Merrill Lynch, advising the emerging markets desk which involved loan trading and emerging markets investment banking and advisory activity. Subsequently, at Bear Stearns, she advised the emerging markets trading and capital markets desk as well as the emerging markets investment banking department. A subsequent tour of duty at Merrill Lynch took her to the equity capital markets and structured products desks.
Leslie holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, New York, New York and a B.A. from Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. At Wellesley College she was elected Phi Bet Kappa and graduated as a Durant Scholar. Currently residing in Potomac, Maryland, she is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and a member of the New York City Bar Association.