Every year, the world’s leading regulators share their insights into the critical problems confronting the global financial markets with both the Fordham Law community and business community at the annual A.A. Sommer, Jr. Lecture on Corporate, Securities, and Financial Law. This year for the 21st anniversary, Allison Herren Lee, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), served as the lecture series’ guest speaker on November 10.
The lecture series was established by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in tribute to their partner Al Sommer, who dedicated years of service to the legal profession. Sommer was an expert in a broad range of securities law topics and was influential in creating important regulatory innovations in the securities market and served as a commissioner with the SEC from 1973 to 1976.
Lee was first appointed to the SEC in 2019 before being designated acting chair of the Commission in January of 2021. Before becoming a commissioner, she had more than 10 years of experience in other SEC roles, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein and as senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit.
Following opening remarks by Dean Matthew Diller and an introduction by Ben Indek, partner of Morgan Lewis, Lee was interviewed by G. Jeffrey Boujoukos, another partner at Morgan Lewis. Boujoukos is the current leader of the firm’s securities enforcement practice and previously served as the regional director of the SEC’s Philadelphia office.
Though Lee had never met Sommer—she was in her final year of high school by the time Sommer was finishing his last year as commissioner—there are nonetheless common values between them, including Sommer’s “abiding commitment to the mission of the SEC, his support for the independence of the agency and its staff, and his deep belief in the significance of the work that we do,” Lee said.
“A lot has changed in the world and in our markets since the 1970s,” she added, “but the mission is still critical, the staff is still dedicated and immensely talented, and the work is still essential.”
Lee’s Trajectory to the SEC
After working in oil and gas and software sales for a number of years, Lee pursued law later in life, graduating from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law when she was almost 40 years old.
Upon graduation Lee worked on a USAID project in Armenia, which was opening its first stock market at the time, where she worked on periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law on securities market regulation. “That really opened my eyes to securities laws and the significance of what that means in a burgeoning democracy,” she explained.
Lee then went on to work at a large firm as a litigator in securities and antitrust and served as a special assistant U.S. attorney before eventually working at the SEC. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had and I’ve never looked back,” Lee said of her time as commissioner at the SEC.
Current SEC “Hot Topics”
Boujoukos also asked Lee about a number of “enforcement hot topics” including cooperation credit, civil penalties, and waivers under 9(c) of the Investment Company Act. He also asked for Lee’s insights about what it has been like to act as commissioner during the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the obvious hardships, Lee said, the agency has been able to remain functioning and productive.
“I have been just profoundly impressed with not just the resilience, but the devotion and the dedication of the public servants at the agency,” she said.