Home > Journals > JCRED > Vol. 37 (2024-2026) > Iss. 4
Abstract
(Excerpt)
I have been a securities lawyer my entire professional career. I began my career representing financial services firms being sued by investors and investigated by the regulators. We handled their defense in a variety of forums, including Court, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). FINRA is the primary self-regulatory organization tasked with regulating brokerage firms under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
From private practice, I joined St. John’s Law School, initially as a supervising attorney with the Securities Arbitration Clinic, and later as a Professor of Clinical Legal Education. Joining the clinic allowed me the space to continue to be a practicing attorney, while providing support for my emerging role as an academic and scholar.
My early scholarship explored the statutes and regulations governing those who provide investment advice to retail investors. My interest in this topic aligned with the work I did as a defense attorney, and the work the clinic was doing to represent investors. While I understood the rules that applied in this space through practice, my scholarship gave me the insight into why the rules were what they were. I gained the confidence to begin to tackle the question of where those rules fell short and how they could be improved.