Former SEC Commissioner Joins Law Firm as Vacancies Persist
Caroline Crenshaw, a former commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is joining the law firm Venable, specializing in helping clients navigate regulatory changes and securities issues.
In a statement, Crenshaw said she was excited to join Venable to help clients with “practical, strategic advice,” noting that “as financial markets continue to evolve, clients are confronting new questions driven by changing regulation, technological innovation and shifting market dynamics.”
Crenshaw stepped down from the SEC earlier this year, leaving the SEC with only three commissioners (which will shrink to two with Commissioner Hester Peirce’s expected departure later this year). Crenshaw was also the sole remaining Democratic commissioner (under SEC rules, no more than three commissioners may belong to the same political party).
Crenshaw joined the commission in 2013, working as counsel for prior Democratic commissioners Kara Stein and Robert J. Jackson. She also worked in the agency’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations and has served in the U.S. Army JAG Corps since 2016. In 2020, President Donald Trump nominated Crenshaw to succeed Jackson, whose term had expired. When President Joe Biden nominated her for a second term that would’ve expired in 2029, Republican senators blocked it, largely criticizing her views on cryptocurrency regulation.
Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga both resigned at the start of Trump’s second term, and Crenshaw’s role as the sole Democratic voice on the commission often left her as a dissenting voice on some of the agency’s most contentious issues.
Crenshaw has criticized the agency for playing “a game of regulatory Jenga,” while knocking staff cuts, its decision to end the legal defense of the SEC’s climate disclosure rule (claiming other commissioners sought to skirt guidelines for rescinding existing rules), and knocking Chair Paul Atkins’ allowance for greater private markets exposure in retail investors’ retirement plans.
According to the SEC, before her government role, Crenshaw was an attorney in the D.C. office of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan, where she represented public companies, broker/dealers and investment advisors.
Peirce will depart the agency to join Regent University School of Law as an associate professor; though the commission hasn’t announced her departure date, the Virginia school revealed in a statement that she would start this November. Her departure would leave only two commissioners: Chair Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda (both Republican appointees).
According to an analysis by the law firm Holland & Knight, the commission could continue to operate with only two members (though a split between the two members, or a recusal by one for any reason, would make a decision impossible). During the Bill Clinton administration, two commissioners served, leading the agency to adopt rules allowing it to operate with only two members.
However, the agency continues to operate with only one political party represented. In July, Politico reported that the Trump administration was eyeing former SEC Attorney Steven Levine to succeed Peirce, but there haven’t been any indications that the current vacancies will be replaced. The SEC did not respond to requests for comment on whether the vacancies will be filled.
