Next year, Professor Chris Brummer will become the first Academic Fellow for the Securities & Exchange Commission’s Office of International Affairs.
Chris Brummer, whose scholarship focuses on securities regulation, will spend part of the 2008-09 academic year as an Academic Fellow with the Securities & Exchange Commission’s Office of International Affairs.
Professor Brummer will be the first SEC Fellow to work with the SEC’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), the arm of the SEC that addresses cross-border securities transactions. At the SEC, the OIA facilitates international regulatory and enforcement cooperation, the adoption of high regulatory standards worldwide and the development of technical assistance programs to strengthen the regulatory infrastructure in global securities markets.
“My research involves assessing how securities regulators coordinate with one another to formulate policy with regards to cross-border securities transactions,” he explains. “In the U.S., the OIA is the focal point of such activity. This is quite an exciting time to be a research fellow in this office, because no other issue is quite as important right now as the issue of globalization.”
Professor Brummer’s research will address issues such as the regulation of new financial products, many of which are created in the U.S. and then sold overseas, as well as how to allow foreign companies to sell securities to investors. “I’ll be analyzing the impact of SEC rules and actions on foreign market participants active in the United States, and advising the SEC regarding the effect of U.S. regulations on cross-border activities,” he says. “There are concerns and questions about how to regulate new markets. There’s obviously a need for cooperation on that front. In addition, as more companies choose to raise capital outside of the United States, there’s a big push to ensure the competitiveness of American financial institutions. My role will involve researching those kinds of issues and providing analytical support and advice to senior staff on issues of regulatory policy.”
Professor Brummer looks forward to the opportunity to gain a “deep, institutional understanding” of the inner workings of the Securities & Exchange Commission. “It’s a somewhat unique opportunity,” he says. “No scholar has had the opportunity to be embedded in the Office of International Affairs.”
Professor Brummer joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2006, after practicing in the New York and London offices of Cravath Swaine & Moore. He teaches courses in Securities Regulation and International Business Transactions and is affiliated with both Vanderbilt’s Law & Business and International Legal Studies programs.