Stephanie Avakian is an American lawyer, regulator and

white collar White collar may refer to: * White-collar worker, a professional who performs office-based or similar service-based jobs, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor * White-collar boxing * White-collar crime The term ...

criminal defense specialist appointed on June 8, 2017 to co-head the U.S.

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) Division of Enforcement, a title she shared with Steven Peikin. As of 2023 she had moved into private practice, working for

WilmerHale Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as WilmerHale, is an American multinational law firm with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Co-headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Boston, it was formed in 2004 through the m ...

Pre-SEC

Stephanie Avakian was born in

Vineland, New Jersey Vineland is a City (New Jersey), city and the most populous municipality in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey. Bridgeton, New Jersey, Bridgeton and Vineland are the two principal cities of the ...

. She studied law in

The College of New Jersey The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, ...

for her bachelor's degree and at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

for her master's degree in 1995. She started her career in law in SEC as a Chief of Enforcement in New York. She decided to leave the SEC and moved to partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP but then moved back to SEC when she was offered to be the Deputy Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement. At her private practice, she worked on the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, helping financial institutions and private clients that helped her bring back skills to lead in the SEC.

Career

Avakian worked at the SEC from 1995 to 1999 as an investigator and counsel to former commissioner Paul Carey. She later moved to private practice, joining

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as WilmerHale, is an American multinational law firm with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Co-headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Boston, it was formed in 2004 through the m ...

, where she became vice chair of the firm’s securities practice. There, she represented financial institutions, public companies, boards, and individuals in matters before the SEC and other agencies. In June 2014, Avakian returned to the SEC as Deputy Director of the Division of Enforcement. In that role, she was tasked with enforcing many of 2010 Dodd-Frank provisions put in place to police markets after the

. She was named Acting Director of the division in December, 2016 after Director Andrew Ceresney stepped down. As co-chair of the division, she has cited

cybercrime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or Computer network, networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cyberc ...

as one of the biggest threats to the financial markets and will have some latitude in setting enforcement and prosecution priorities for the agency. During her career at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stephanie Avakian kept her focus on investors and threats to the market where she legislated 3000 enforcement actions and over $17 billion financial remedies. Her success in leading thousands of cases alongside Steven Peikin enables thousands of investors to their markets secure amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

2020

Under Avakian, trading was suspended when questions arose about integrity and adequacy of information in the marketplace by which there were six COVID-related actions were a fraud. Avakian continued to emphasize safeguarding information, privacy of information, and abuse of the markets being volatile. Moreover, she was in charge of the Coronavirus Steering Committee where she took care of COVID-19 misconducts in the market. Avakian, under pressure of the pandemic, continued her leadership role virtually, working on keeping American Investors safe throughout the pandemic. By the end of 2020, Stephanie Avakian ended her tenure.

2022

In early December 2022 she took on

Caroline Ellison Caroline Ellison (born November 1994) is a former American business executive and a convicted felon. Ellison was convicted of fraud in 2023 in relation to the bankruptcy of FTX. She was the CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm affiliated with ...

, former CEO of

Alameda Research Alameda Research was a cryptocurrency trading firm, co-founded in September 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara MacAulay. In November 2022, FTX, Alameda's sister cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a solvency crisis, and both FTX and Alameda ...

as her client at law firm

Personal life

Relationships and family

Stephanie Avakian married Howard Heiss on October 26, 2002, in Manhattan, having met at a business meeting in Manhattan in August 2001.

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Avakian, Stephanie Living people 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission personnel Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr people Year of birth missing (living people)