Jay Tambe, leader of Jones Day's Financial Markets Practice, will receive the South Asian Bar Association of North America's 2021 Cornerstone Award at the SABA virtual conference on June 26.

The Cornerstone Award is among SABA's highest honors. Past recipients have included Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Vijay Bondada, Chief Litigation Officer at Duke Energy; Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase; Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Inderpreet Sawhney, Group General Counsel of Infosys; and Kalpana Srinivasan, Co-Managing Partner of Susman Godfrey.

The SABA North America Cornerstone Award is given to an individual who is a "cornerstone" of SABA North America.

The candidate must exemplify the objectives of the organization through their legal work or their involvement with SABA North America, SABA Foundation, or local SABA chapters. The candidate should exemplify high achievement in one of more of the following: promoting the professional development of the South Asian legal community through networking, education, advocacy, and mentoring; ensuring the civil liberties of the South Asian community; serving the legal interests of the South Asian community and the community at large; or encouraging greater participation by the South Asian community in the legal profession or the government."

Mr. Tambe, who is resident in Jones Day's New York Office, advises financial institutions on litigations concerning securities, derivatives, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and other financial products. Many of his cases involve cross-border disputes, and he is well-versed in navigating international discovery and judgment enforcement.

He has litigated significant claims involving structured finance investments in New York state and federal courts, including many precedent-setting CDO litigations. He led the Jones Day team that prevailed in the very first appeal before ISDA's external review panel. For nearly 10 years, Mr. Tambe represented Lehman Bros. Holdings, Inc. and its affiliated debtors in more than 50 separate derivatives disputes, including several evidentiary hearings and trials. Currently, he is the lead lawyer representing Wells Fargo in numerous actions, including class actions concerning municipal securities, corporate bonds, commercial lending and CMBS practices, and RMBS trustee duties.

Mr. Tambe is a member of the Private Sector Steering Committee of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and received SABANY's Corporate Leadership Award in 2011. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American India Foundation, a pioneering philanthropic organization committed to building a bridge between the Indian diaspora in the United States and the urgent need to improve the lives of India's underprivileged, with a focus on women, children, and the youth of India.