Sandra M. 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.
Ms. Rocks currently serves as co-chair of the Investment Securities Sub-Committee of the ABA Business Law Section UCC Committee. 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 Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC"). From 2005 through 2008 Ms. Rocks served as ABA Liaison-Advisor to the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code. She has chaired the International Commercial Law Subcommittee of the UCC Committee. Ms. Rocks previously served on the Subcommittee on Investment Securities’ 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.
Ms. Rocks participated on behalf of EMTA (formerly the Emerging Markets Traders Association) in the UNIDROIT project to create the Convention On Substantive Rules For Intermediated Securities, which was finalized in October 2009. She previously acted as a co-coordinator for the private financial sector for UNIDROIT's Study Group on this project. Ms. Rocks was a member of the Subcommittee on Legal Issues of the Group of 30 Global Monitoring Committee. Ms. Rocks participated on behalf of EMTA in the development by The Hague Conference on Private International Law on the Law Applicable to Certain Rights in Respect of Securities Held with Intermediaries (the "Hague Securities Convention"), which was finalized in December 2002. She also participated as an industry expert in connection with the United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade.
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 numerous articles on UCC and securitization matters, including the "Survey of International Commercial Law Developments" for
The Business Lawyer's August editions. Ms. Rocks is a frequent speaker on Articles 8 and 9 of the UCC and related international initiatives at bar association and privately sponsored educational programs, both domestic and international.
Ms. Rocks is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Susquehanna University, a member of the Board of Advisors of Gonzaga University School of Law's Commercial Law Center, and a member of the Board of Directors of Hazon. She is distinguished in the
Legal Media Group's IFLR 1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms,
The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers and
The Best Lawyers in America.
Ms. Rocks is a member of the Bar in New York.