Former SEC Acting Chair and Commissioner Allison Herren Leeserved as Commissioner from June 2019 through July 2022. She served as Acting Chair of the Commission from January 21, 2021, to April 17, 2021. During her tenure, Commissioner Lee focused on bringing transparency and accountability to markets on issues related to climate change and other ESG-related information.
Commissioner Lee has been a securities law practitioner for 25 years. She is a member of the American College of Governance Counsel, and has written, lectured, and taught courses internationally in Spain and Italy on financial regulation and corporate law. Commissioner Lee served for over a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein and as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. In addition, she has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure, and participated on a USAID project in Armenia assisting in the drafting of periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law of the Republic of Armenia on Securities Market Regulation.
Prior to government service, Commissioner Lee was a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC, focusing on securities, antitrust, and commercial litigation. A member of the Colorado bar, she holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Colorado and a JD from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was salutatorian and a Chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the Law Review.