Citadel Securities LLC is counting on seasoned legal hand Ryan VanGrack as the market maker parts ways with chief legal officer Heath Tarbert.
Tarbert joined Citadel Securities in 2021 after serving as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the top US derivatives regulator. He’s set next month to join stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial Ltd. as its top lawyer.
VanGrack will handle day-to-day top legal duties in his role as general counsel for Citadel Securities, while the company looks for a permanent successor to Tarbert, said spokesman David Millar.
VanGrack, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, is a former senior adviser to former US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White. He also worked as a White House deputy associate counsel in the Obama administration, having started his career as an associate at Williams & Connolly.
In 2022, VanGrack became general counsel for Citadel Securities, where he reported to Tarbert. Prior to that VanGrack spent the past four years as a managing director and senior deputy general counsel at Citadel LLC, a hedge fund that hired him from the SEC.
Tarbert was not available to discuss his decision to leave Citadel Securities.
Citadel and Citadel Securities are separate financial services entities that are both controlled by billionaire Ken Griffin. Citadel Securities has been expanding its ranks after posting a record $7.5 billion in revenue last year.
Griffin announced a year ago this month that Citadel and Citadel Securities will relocate their headquarters from Chicago to Miami. The Miami move marked a major geographic shift for one of Wall Street’s premier players, which has drawn Big Law firms with them to the city.
Tarbert’s eventual full-time replacement will be based in Miami or New York, Millar said.
Tarbert, a former partner at Allen & Overy and Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Washington, led the CFTC for nearly two years before heading to Citadel Securities. He previously spent almost another two years as a senior official at the Treasury Department during the Trump administration.
At Circle, Tarbert will succeed general counsel Flavia Naves, who is leaving the blockchain payments company, where she took over from its former legal chief and ex-Homeland Security top lawyer Gus Coldebella in 2020.
Growing Legal Group
Litigation boutique Bartlit Beck and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan have most often represented Citadel in US federal courts over the past five years, according to Bloomberg Law data.
Within the past year, Citadel has been busy recruiting other lawyers, including former WilmerHale senior associate Aaron Friedman, who now serves as its deputy US head of government and regulatory policy. Brooke Cucinella, a former partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, also joined Citadel as a senior deputy general counsel and global head of litigation and regulatory inquiries.
Citadel also saw two former deputy general counsel—Elizabeth Coe and Christopher Gruszczynski—depart to take top legal jobs at consumer receivables startup ArborKnot Ltd. and real estate investment firm Harbor Group International LLC, respectively. HGI hired Natasha Kassian, a former Citadel divisional compliance lawyer, to be its new compliance chief this year.
