Allison Herren Lee
Of Counsel
Allison is a former SEC Commissioner and Acting Chair, and now of counsel at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, focused on securities fraud and ESG whistleblowing.
Contact Allison
a.lee@kkc.com
Allison Herren Lee’s practice focuses on representing whistleblowers reporting securities, commodities, banking and capital markets law violations, including a focus on ESG, governance/audit, securities law, and whistleblowers.
Before joining Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto as Of Counsel, Lee was appointed by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and sworn into office on July 8, 2019. In January 2021, she was appointed by President Biden as Acting Chair of the Commission and served in that role through April of 2021. She then continued to serve as a commissioner until she stepped down in July 2022.
Throughout her tenure as Commissioner and her service as Acting Chair, she emphasized the need for fulsome and accurate disclosures so that investors have the information they need in pricing risk and allocating capital. She highlighted the need for market participants to maintain the highest ethical standards, and quickly moved to make climate change risk and ESG a top SEC priority. As the SEC’s Acting Chair, Lee helped propel ESG issues to the forefront of the agency’s agenda. Among other things, she hired a senior policy adviser for ESG and launched an enforcement task force to evaluate and pursue tips, referrals, and whistleblower complaints on ESG-related issues. She was a champion for stronger whistleblower protections and individual accountability for violations of securities laws.
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“In recent times, it seems that nearly every day has provided us with an opportunity to appreciate the contributions of whistleblowers. Often, they [whistleblowers] display extraordinary bravery to expose fraud and wrongdoing, and to shine light in some very dark places. In doing so, they reinforce our fundamental values – that the rule of law matters, and no one is, or should be, above the law. All too often, sometimes very publicly and sometimes in the shadows, those whistleblowers face retaliation from the powerful figures they expose. They help create transparency, and from transparency flows crucial accountability.”
Whistleblowers Fight Tremendous Odds and Deserve Better
Statement by Allison as SEC Commissioner, September 23, 2020
