Rusty LaForge is a corporate lawyer whose practice is primarily concentrated on regulatory and transactional matters affecting banks, bank holding companies and other financial institutions. He currently serves as the leader of the firm's Banking and Financial Institutions Group.
Rusty’s career experience includes serving as director of investor relations for a large publicly-traded financial services holding company as well as an associate in the financial services section of the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (formerly Bracewell & Patterson, LLP) and as director of finance for the Office of Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating. Since 2009, he has served on the board of directors of TheBank Arlington, a Texas state-chartered bank that in January 2012 announced an agreement to sell to Texas-based Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE:PB).
While in law school, Rusty served as a Carl Albert Executive Fellow with the Oklahoma Department of Securities and as a judicial extern for U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard in the Western District of Oklahoma.
In 2011, Rusty was appointed by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin to serve a four-year term as a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission, also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, which seeks to provide states with "non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law." He is currently serving on the commission's study committee for a Uniform Mortgage Foreclosure Act.
In 2010, Rusty was one of 11 inaugural members appointed by the Oklahoma City Council to serve a three-year term on the citizens advisory board that provides insight and advice for Oklahoma City's MAPS 3 initiative, a $777 million capital improvement program. He currently serves as the advisory board's vice chair.