Howard J. Finkelstein is a native New Yorker, who received his undergraduate degree from Yeshiva University, a masters in English Literature from NYU, and a JD (magna cum laude) from Cardozo Law School. At Cardozo, he served as Notes & Comments Editor to Volume I of the Cardozo Law Review. He is currently a Shareholder at the New York office of Akerman Senterfitt, where he started and heads the Microfinance Industry Practice Group.

He has been a pioneer in using his legal skills to develop transaction structures to bring together the capital markets and the microfinance sector, having been the lead attorney in a number of historic transactions, including BlueOrchard Microfinance Securitization I (2006), Developing World Markets' XXEB CDO (2007), MicroVest's CDO (2007) and other transactions. He was counsel to Blue Orchard in BOLD-2007, which was named by the Financial Times as Sustainable Deal of the Year for 2007.

Howard lives in Brooklyn and has four children and four grandchildren.