Allison Herren Lee is an American attorney and former government official who served as a member of the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

(SEC) from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, Lee briefly served as acting chair of the SEC from January to April 2021. After leaving the SEC, Lee became an adjunct professor at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(NYU)

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for bec ...

In 2023, she joined the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto.

Education

Lee received a degree in business from the

University of Colorado, Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

College of Law. During her time at law school, Lee was salutatorian, a chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the school's Law Review.

Career

Prior to joining the SEC, Lee worked in private practice as a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC. She also served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and was a member of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

In 2005, Lee joined the agency as a staff attorney at the SEC's enforcement division at a regional office in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Before being appointed as a commissioner, Lee served in various roles at the SEC for over a decade, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein, and as senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit.

Tenure

Lee was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

in June 2019 to fill a Democratic vacancy on the SEC. She announced her departure from the agency in 2022, and Democrat Jaime Lizárraga was confirmed as her successor of the SEC.

ESG issues

During her tenure, Lee was credited with bringing

environmental, social, and corporate governance Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is shorthand for an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. Investing with ESG considerations is sometimes referred to as ''responsible inv ...

(ESG) issues to the forefront of the agency's agenda. As a commissioner, Lee hired a policy advisor focused on ESG issues and initiated a commission task force to clamp down on alleged "

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called green sheen, is a form of advertising or marketing spin that deceptively uses green PR and green marketing to persuade the public that an organization's products, goals, or ...

". During her time as acting SEC chair, Lee helped craft rules that directed the SEC to gather public input on corporate climate change disclosures.

Post-SEC career

In 2022, it was announced that Lee would join the

as an adjunct professor and senior fellow at the school's Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Allison Herren Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Assistant United States attorneys Colorado Democrats U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission personnel University of Colorado Boulder alumni University of Denver alumni New York University School of Law faculty Sturm College of Law alumni Members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission