Allison Herren Lee is the newest Securities and Exchange Commission member following her swearing-in on Monday, bringing decades of experience as a securities law practitioner if not much municipal bond expertise.
Lee will replace her former boss, Kara Stein, whose term expired in 2017 but who continued to serve until January of this year under a provision allowing commissioners to serve up to 18 months past their term expiration if no replacement has been confirmed. Lee, a Democrat, joins Independent Chairman Jay Clayton, Republican Hester Peirce, Republican Elad Roisman, and Democrat Robert Jackson. Jackson's term expires this year.
Lee was recommended for her post by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was appointed by President Donald Trump and then unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Terms last five years and to ensure that the commission remains nonpartisan, no more than three commissioners may belong to the same political party.
From 2005 to 2018, Lee served in various roles at the SEC before her brief departure. Most recently Lee wrote, lectured and taught courses on financial regulation and corporate law in Spain and Italy.
“I’m honored to return to the SEC and to work with the dedicated public servants on the staff, and my fellow Commissioners, to carry out the SEC’s critical mission,” Lee said in a press release.
From 2013 to 2015, Lee was counsel to Stein at the SEC. Before that, she spent about nine years as an SEC enforcement lawyer. She then returned to the enforcement role following her time as Stein’s counsel, serving as a senior counsel to the SEC enforcement division’s complex financial instruments unit, which handles cases involving financial products and practices involving sophisticated market participants.
Lee worked out of the SEC’s Denver office where she was a primary investigator in a number of enforcement actions, including a 2016 action in which a California-based mortgage company and its executives agreed to pay $12.7 million to settle charges that they orchestrated a scheme to defraud investors in the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities.
“Allison’s expertise in securities law, including from her prior tenure at the Commission, will be invaluable to our efforts to advance the interests of investors and our markets,” said Clayton in a press release. “Many of Allison’s former — and as of Monday, current — colleagues have expressed to me their support for Allison’s return.”
Before her time in government service, Lee was a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC where she focused on securities, antitrust and commercial litigation.
Dee Wisor, an attorney at Butler Snow in Denver, didn’t work professionally with Lee when both were at Sherman & Howard but knew her socially, he said. Wisor said she was a great person.
“She served in a variety of SEC roles, including perhaps most importantly as counsel to Commissioner Stein,” Wisor said. “She brings with her a full background on issues before the commission.”
Stefan Stein, a partner at Sherman & Howard’s Litigation, Trial and Appeals Practice Group, worked with Lee in the late 1990s into the 2000s at the firm. He said Lee was collaborative, took initiative and instead of waiting for direction, came up with her own ideas.
“She is extremely bright, very diligent and hardworking,” Stein said. “She takes very seriously all the tasks she performs and is committed to performing them at the highest level.”
Lee, a member of the Colorado bar, holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Colorado and a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was a salutatorian, a Chancellor’s Scholar and served on the law review.
Lee’s term expires on June 5, 2022.
