Sandra Rocks is counsel based in the New York office.
Ms. Rocks' practice focuses on commercial financing, including secured transaction and bankruptcy law.
Ms. Rocks joined the firm in 1980 and became counsel in 1990. She received a J.D. degree in 1979 from Columbia University, where she was a member of the Law Review. Ms. Rocks received an undergraduate degree,
summa cum laude, from Susquehanna University in 1975. She also served as law clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Morris Pashman.
In August 2005 Ms. Rocks was elected ABA Liaison-Advisor to the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code. She has chaired the International Commercial Law Subcommittee of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA and the Subcommittee on Investment Securities of the UCC Committee. Ms. Rocks chaired the Task Force on Proposed Treasury Regulations Governing Book-Entry Securities, which studied and provided comments to the Department of the Treasury on regulations governing book-entry Treasury securities. She served as a member of the SEC’s Market Transactions Advisory Committee, established to advise ways in which to reduce risk in the efficient clearance and settlement of market transactions. She chaired the bankruptcy subcommittee of that group, which issued its final report in 1997. Ms. Rocks is a member of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and the Association of Commercial Finance Attorneys. Ms. Rocks serves on the TriBar Committee on Legal Opinions and participated in TriBar’s preparation of its original and updated reports on security interest opinions under Article 9 of the UCC.
In 2001 and 2002 Ms. Rocks participated on behalf of EMTA (formerly the Emerging Markets Traders Association) in drafting sessions at The Hague Conference on Private International Law culminating in the Convention on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with Intermediaries (the “Hague Securities Convention”). She also participated as an industry expert in connection with the United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade.
Ms. Rocks currently participates on behalf of EMTA in the UNIDROIT project to create a convention on Harmonized Substantive Rules Regarding Indirectly Held Securities, having previously acted as a co-coordinator for the private financial sector for UNIDROIT’s Study Group on this project. Ms. Rocks was also a member of the Subcommittee on Legal Issues of the Group of 30 Global Monitoring Committee.
Ms. Rocks, together with Carl Bjerre, an associate professor of law at the University of Oregon School of Law, is the author of The ABC’s of the UCC, Article 8: Investment Securities, Second Edition. She has authored and co-authored various articles on UCC and securitization matters, most recently the upcoming “Survey of International Commercial Law Developments During 2006” for The Business Lawyer, August 2007. Ms. Rocks is a frequent speaker at bar association and privately sponsored educational programs, both domestic and international, on Articles 8 and 9 of the UCC and related international initiatives.
Ms. Rocks is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Susquehanna University, serves on the New York Board of Overseers of Hebrew Union College and is a member of the Board of Advisors of Gonzaga University School of Law’s Commercial Law Center. She is listed in the Legal Media Group's
IFLR 1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms - Banking: Financial Services Regulatory.