There’s so much to learn at PLI’s 53rd Annual Institute on Securities Regulation! Chris and Kurt sit down with program Co-Chairs Meredith Cross of WilmerHale, Keir Gumbs of Broadridge Financial Solutions, and Carmen Lawrence of King & Spalding to hear what the program has to offer.
Featured in this Episode
Meredith B. Cross
Meredith Cross is a partner in the Securities and Transactional Departments in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Ms. Cross advises public companies and their boards on disclosure and other corporate finance securities law and corporate governance matters, including SEC enforcement matters involving corporate finance issues. Ms. Cross rejoined the firm in 2013 after having served as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since 2009.
While serving as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC, Ms. Cross led the Division’s efforts to implement both the Dodd-Frank Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Under her leadership, the Division recommended close to sixty rulemaking releases to the Commission. Ms. Cross testified before Congress numerous times on a broad range of issues, including corporate governance, capital formation, risk retention in asset-backed securities offerings, executive compensation oversight, and agency management and budget.
Before first joining WilmerHale in 1998, Ms. Cross served in a variety of positions in the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC from 1990 to 1998, including Deputy Director, Associate Director (International and Small Business), and Chief Counsel. Prior to first joining the SEC staff, she was an associate and counsel at King & Spalding in Atlanta from 1983 to 1990. She clerked for Judge Albert J. Henderson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (1982-1983).
Ms. Cross currently serves as Co-Chair of the Practising Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation. She is a frequent speaker at securities and corporate governance law conferences. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Securities Regulation Institute, a member of the Securities Institute Advisory Committee, a Fellow in the American College of Governance Counsel, and previously served as a member of the ABA Corporate Laws Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the SEC Historical Society and the Board of Governors of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins.
Keir D. Gumbs
Keir Gumbs is the Chief Legal Officer of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., where he oversees the legal, compliance and physical security teams. Prior to joining Broadridge, Keir served as Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Corporate Secretary of Uber Technologies, Inc., where he oversaw Payments, M&A, Finance, Real Estate and Commercial Transactions, Corporate Governance, Marketing, ESG, Capital Markets and related matters.
Before Uber, Keir was a Partner for nearly a decade at Covington & Burling, where he represented a cross-section of constituencies in securities and governance matters, including companies ranging in size from Fortune 50 companies to venture-backed firms, as well as public pension funds, hedge funds, faith-based investors, and trade associations.
Keir’s career includes six years of service with the SEC, where immediately prior to joining Covington & Burling in 2005, he served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Roel C. Campos. In that position, Keir advised the Commissioner on a variety of matters arising under federal securities law, with an emphasis on corporate finance issues under the Securities Act of 1933, issuer reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, corporate governance developments, and SEC enforcement actions. Prior to serving as Counsel to Commissioner Campos, Keir spent five years as a staff attorney and later a Special Counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.
Carmen J. Lawrence
Carmen Lawrence is a partner in King & Spalding’s Special Matters and Government Investigations practice group.
Ms. Lawrence’s practice focuses on representing parties in investigations and litigations conducted primarily by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, self-regulatory organizations and state securities regulators; conducting internal investigations; providing crisis management advice to public and private companies; and counseling public companies and regulated entities (broker-dealers and investment advisers) on their obligations under the federal securities laws.
From 1996 until June 2000, Ms. Lawrence was the Regional Director for the SEC’s Northeast Regional Office (covering 14 states and the District of Columbia), where she oversaw all enforcement and regulatory operations in the SEC’s largest region. Some of the SEC’s most significant cases were brought by the Northeast Regional Office under Ms. Lawrence’s leadership.
Before her appointment as regional director, from 1990 through 1995, Ms. Lawrence served as Senior Associate Regional Director, heading up the Northeast Regional Office’s Enforcement Division. From 1981 to 1989, she served in various staff and senior positions in the Enforcement Division.
Ms. Lawrence received numerous awards during her tenure at the SEC, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Award in 1998; the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award in 1995; the Stanley Sporkin Award in 1993; and the Irving M. Pollack Award, presented to an enforcement lawyer exhibiting leadership, integrity, and intellect, in 1990.
Ms. Lawrence is consistently recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading individual for Securities Regulation and for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. She is consistently recognized by the Legal 500 in Litigation: White-Collar Criminal Defense, and is additionally recognized in Financial Services: Litigation. She is also consistently recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a New York Litigation Star. She was named to Securities Docket’s inaugural “Enforcement 40” list of top SEC enforcement lawyers in 2013.
Ms. Lawrence has spoken extensively and participates in numerous continuing legal education programs for federal securities law matters.
