About Debra
Debra Speyer has built a long, varied career across courtrooms, arbitration panels and classrooms. She trained at Hofstra, earning a B.B.A. in 1980, a J.D. from Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in 1984, and an M.B.A. in 1986. Those years set the stage for a practice that spans securities, regulatory work, arbitration and elder-law matters.
Her first legal position was as a law clerk to The Honorable Michael Solomon in 1980. She moved quickly into private practice and corporate work. In 1984 she joined Thomson McKinnon as vice president and counsel. By 1988 she was working as a prosecutor at what is now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In 1990 she opened her own firm, Law Offices Of Debra G. Speyer, and has served as principal since then.
Speyer has combined practice and teaching. In 2010 Drexel Law School appointed her an adjunct professor of law. Her university degrees and courtroom experience inform the classes she taught and the seminars she has presented. She has kept one foot in the academy while maintaining an active litigation and arbitration docket.
Her admissions and memberships cover a wide legal geography. She is admitted to bar practice in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland and the District of Columbia. She also holds admissions or standing before the Second and Third Circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court, and she is a member of the British Law Society. Professional associations include long-term roles with the American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, Philadelphia Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Association.
Speyer has been active on several panels and committees. She has served as an arbitrator for FINRA and for the Court of Common Pleas since 1990. She has been on the Pennsylvania Securities Commission’s Lawyer Advisory Committee and is a member of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association. She has also held officer roles in national trial and justice organizations since the early 1990s. Memberships in elder-law and women’s business organizations reflect the breadth of her community and professional involvement.
Her practice over the years has included securities arbitration and investor representation, regulatory proceedings, civil arbitration and elder-law matters. She maintains offices that include Two Bala Plaza and a Maryland office and continues to accept cases and arbitration appointments. Her current practice focuses on securities disputes, investor protection matters, arbitration service and related regulatory work.
