Our Team

Our flexible, scalable model gives us the opportunity to meet our clients’ needs in an efficient and practical manner. Each Charles Law team member brings a unique and specific set of skills and experience to a seamless collaboration custom-tailored to each client’s challenges and opportunities.

Meet the Charles Law Team

GuyLaine Charles

GuyLaine Charles is the founder of Charles Law PLLC. GuyLaine negotiates derivatives and other trading agreements, including ISDA Master Agreements, Master Securities Forward Transaction Agreements, repos, sponsored repos, securities lending agreements, prime brokerages agreements, and futures and options agreements. GuyLaine is a practical lawyer with deep experience in the financial industry and in managing, negotiating, and documenting a wide range of transactions. GuyLaine has both big law and boutique law firm experience, having begun her career in private practice at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, and most recently being a partner at another boutique law firm. In addition, GuyLaine has worked at law firms in Canada and represents clients across North America. GuyLaine is known for her pragmatic advice and hands on approach. She takes pride in knowing her clients, understanding their needs, and ensuring that they are consistently met, if not exceeded.

GuyLaine has presented on derivatives and ethical matters for clients, financial institutions, as well as industry associations, including the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the International Energy Credit Association, the Practical Law Institute, the National Association of Women Owned Law Firms, the New York City Bar Association, the Futures Industry Association, the American Bar Association and Morgan Stanley. GuyLaine has been a guest lecturer at the American University Washington College of Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Georgetown Law. GuyLaine also teaches yearly courses on “Energy Derivatives and the ISDA Documentation” and “NAESB Negotiations” at the Oak Leaf Energy Training institute.

GuyLaine is a member of the New York Bar and the Law Society of Ontario. She is fluent in French.

Joseph A. Heyison

Joseph A. Heyison is of Counsel to Charles Law PLLC. Joe’s extensive experience in financial markets covers all areas of master agreement and other trading documentation, as well as broker-dealer and FCM customer practice, and securities and banking regulation. Joe was most recently Executive Director and Associate General Counsel at Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc. His past experience also includes being the general counsel of renewable energy and venture capital firms.

Joe takes pride in developing cost-effective solutions to complex legal problems. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Princeton University.

Steven Gray

Steven Gray is a Derivatives Professional at Charles Law. Steven trained at Clifford Chance in London and has subsequently worked at international financial institutions and firms in London and New York. He has worked on derivatives related products for most of his career, focusing particularly on equity derivatives documentation.

Steven graduated from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales. He is not admitted to the New York bar.

Albert Agyepong is a Law Clerk at Charles Law. Albert began his career in a boutique law firm in Accra, Ghana where he acquired extensive experience advising multinational corporations, governments, and development institutions on corporate and commercial transactions in diverse areas, including natural resources, ESG, investment management and corporate governance. Albert also worked at the World Bank as a short-term consultant with the Development Finance practice group. Albert works with clients of Charles Law on their trading agreements, with a focus on environmental products and the regulatory framework surrounding the agreements we negotiate.

Albert is a graduate of Harvard Law School where he obtained an LL.M. as well as the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He is qualified to practice law in Ghana and Gambia and is working towards admission to the New York bar. In his spare time, Albert plays soccer and squash.

Elorm Zormelo is a Derivatives Analyst at Charles Law. Prior to joining Charles Law, Elorm practiced as a banking and finance transactional and litigation lawyer in a Tier 1 Legal 500 boutique law firm based in Ghana where he gained experience in complex corporate, commercial, and regulatory matters. He also practiced as an insolvency lawyer with KPMG, as well as in compliance roles in the telecom and upstream oil and gas industries. Elorm works with clients of Charles Law on negotiation of their trading agreements, with a focus on digital assets and crypto.

Elorm graduated from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland where he obtained an LL.B. (hons) and is a member of the Ghanaian bar. He is not admitted to the New York bar. Elorm enjoys playing basketball and golf and is a volunteer with the UNFPA’s Orange Support Center for victims of gender-based violence.

Reiba Harper

Reiba Harper is a Derivatives Analyst at Charles Law. Reiba has experience both as in-house and outside counsel, working in the financial services industry as well as in-house experience in risk management and compliance.

Reiba works with clients on their trading agreements including the ISDA Master Agreement, MSFTA, futures and prime brokerage agreements. Reiba is not a member of the New York bar but is admitted to the bars of England and Wales, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Reiba is a fitness enthusiast and globe trotter who loves experiencing new cultures.

Maria Castle

Maria Castle is the office manager and a paralegal at Charles Law PLLC. Maria was educated in London, England and brings over twenty-five years of experience as an office administrator, legal assistant, and paralegal with both small and large law firms in England, Canada and the US. Maria has worked in many areas of law but focusses on corporate and commercial law.

Maria continues her education online through the University of Oxford, England where she was recently accepted as an undergraduate. She lives with her family and pets and enjoys traveling, reading and fiber arts.

Our Team Also Includes the Following Consultants:

A negotiator with over 25 years on Wall Street. Most recently she was director of counterparty relationship management for a NY based alternative investment advisor that manages global macro, credit, and relative-value hedge funds. She negotiated all the trading agreements for the funds, managed the fund’s credit lines, and worked daily with the C level staff and portfolio managers. Before working on the buy-side, she managed transactional agreements for over 100 hedge fund client relationships for the trading desk of an investment bank and prior to that she managed the derivative confirmation team for the proprietary positioning trading desk at a national bank.
An Ontario lawyer with over 25 years of experience representing and working with financial institutions and insurance companies including as general counsel and chief compliance officer. She has extensive experience in structured finance, international mergers and acquisitions and venture capital.
A senior attorney with nearly twenty years of experience structuring and negotiating complex international financial instruments and counterparty arrangements as well as providing regulatory and collateral management oversight and advice in the financial services, capital markets, and investment banking industries.
A former partner in the New York office of a major Canadian law firm with experience in a wide spectrum of financing transactions, including loans, asset-backed securitizations, currency and interest rate swaps, defeasance structures and other structured finance products. Prior to joining the Canadian firm, She practiced for more than two decades at a major New York-based international law firm in both their New York and Paris offices and at a boutique securitization and structured finance firm.

Careers at Charles Law

If your values converge with ours, we would be happy to hear from you. We hire interns, summer associates, consultants, analysts and associates.