Allison Herren Lee is Senior Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Whistleblower Representation Practice. Allison focuses her practice on representing whistleblowers reporting securities, commodities, banking, and capital markets law violations.
Allison has been recognized as a “Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer” by Lawdragon and has been recognized by Chambers & Partners USA for Whistleblower Representation.
Allison brings extensive regulatory experience to her practice. She was appointed by President Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn into office on July 8, 2019. In January 2021, President Biden appointed her as Acting Chair of the Commission, a role she held through April 2021. She continued to serve as a Commissioner until July 2022.
As Commissioner and Acting Chair, Allison championed investor protection and market integrity. She emphasized the importance of comprehensive and accurate disclosures to ensure investors have the information they need to price risk and allocate capital effectively. She advocated for the highest ethical standards among market participants and was a strong proponent of whistleblower protections and individual accountability for securities law violations.
Prior to her tenure as Commissioner, Allison spent over two decades as a securities law practitioner. She served for more than 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. Earlier in her career, she served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure.
Allison is a frequent commentator on legal and regulatory developments and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. She has also taught and lectured internationally, including courses on financial regulation and corporate law in Spain and Italy. In addition, she participated in a USAID project in Armenia, helping to draft periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law on Securities Market Regulation.
Allison is an Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow at NYU School of Law’s Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance.
Allison earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she was salutatorian, a Chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the Law Review. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado.
