Robert Russell’s practice focuses on financial institution supervision, director and officer liability, enforcement and fraud.

Prior to joining Smith Dollar, Mr. Russell was Counsel to Office of Thrift Supervision Director John Reich, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Director’s office, including the development of agency banking policy and the preparation of Congressional testimony and speeches.

Mr. Russell was also Deputy to the Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In that capacity, he advised on all matters coming before the Board of Directors. In addition, he served on the Case Review, the Assessment Appeals, and the Corporate Policy Committees, and headed up the FDIC’s International Technical Assistance and Foreign Visitor Program.

Mr. Russell also served as Director of the FDIC’s Office of Policy Development where he was responsible for coordinating policy formulation on key issues relating to the Corporation’s overall mission, and was Special Assistant to Chairman Ricki Helfer, advising her on the most significant issues facing the FDIC.

Mr. Russell joined the FDIC as Senior Council in the Legal Division, first in the Professional Liability Section, where he managed the FDIC’s anti-fraud program, and subsequently in the Legislation and Regulation Section. He was responsible for coordinating the Corporation's efforts on some of the most significant anti-fraud cases, including lead counsel in the Drexel, Burnham, Lambert case that resulted in a settlement in excess of $1 billion, the Daiwa case that resulted in the expulsion of a foreign bank from the United States, and the Bankers Trust matter, the first major derivatives case involving losses incurred by a federal financial institution.

Mr. Russell also led the FDIC’s Whitewater Task Force, served as the agency’s representative to the interagency Federal Bank Fraud Working Group, and as the FDIC’s representative on the steering committee to the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.

Before joining the FDIC, Mr. Russell served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Litigation Section at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; Assistant Director in the Enforcement Division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Trial Attorney and Program Director at the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Russell is a graduate of Boston College Law School and is a member of the State Bar of Massachusetts.