The SEC and the Unexpected Role of the Founding Fathers

The American Association of Law Schools announced with great excitement that Mary Jo White, the current chair of the SEC, would be the inaugural speaker for the Showcase Speaker series. She is due to address the AALS on January 3, 2014.

From AALS description of Chair White, she should have some very interesting, indeed unique, observations to make. Here is what the AALS had to say

  • Join us at the inaugural AALS Showcase Speaker program with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White. She is the only woman to hold the top position in the more than 200-year history of the SEC. She is also an experienced federal prosecutor and securities lawyer.  

The statement deserves a few observations. 

First, Mary Schapiro, who served as SEC Chair from 2009 through 2012 would be very surprised to learn that Chair White was the "only woman to hold the top position." In fact, Chair Schapiro was both the first permanent woman chair (2009) and the first temporary woman chair (1993). Elisse Walter, the second permanent woman chair, would also likely be surprised.    

Second, the SEC has a long and storied history but its roots do not go back 200 years. That would put the creation of the SEC in 1814, smack in the midst of the War of 1812. With Washington occupied that same year, the British burned the capital, something that would likely have prevented the creation of the SEC, even had it been contemplated. The founding father of the SEC is Franklin Roosevelt (the agency was created in 1934) not James Madison. The AALS notwithstanding, the SEC cannot tie its roots to the heroes of the Revolutionary War period.

The Chair will no doubt have interesting things to say, as always, but she won't be including any insights arising from her service as "the only woman to hold the top position" and she won't be including any thoughts on the "more than 200 year history of the SEC."    

J Robert Brown Jr.