The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Exam Priorities for 2020

New York State Bar Association: Joint Meeting of the Securities Regulation Committee and the Private Investment Funds Sub-Committee 

Topic Title: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Exam Priorities for 2020 for Investment Advisers

Topic Description: The panelists will discuss findings from 2019 exams and current priorities for 2020.

Duration: 50 minutes – No CLE credit will be provided for this event. 

Speakers: Christopher Mulligan and Rachel Lavery (see contact information below)  

Christopher Mulligan, Senior Special Counsel and Co-Coordinator of the Private Funds Specialized Working Group in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, DC office, and Rachel Lavery, Senior Regulatory Counsel in the New York Regional Office will discuss:

• Key findings from 2019 exams
• Key focus areas for 2020 exams
• Recent updates (including impact of Covid-19 and recent cases)

No CLE credit will be provided for this event. However, if you have any questions that you would like to pose to the presenters prior to the meeting, please contact the Chairperson of the Securities Regulation Committee, Tram Nguyen, at [email protected], to submit your questions.

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Christopher Mulligan

US Securities and Exchange Commission

Email: [email protected] 

Christopher Mulligan is a Senior Special Counsel and Co-Coordinator of the Private Funds Specialized Working Group at the SEC where he advises exam staff on investment adviser issues, conducts exams, drafts risk alerts and develops exam initiatives and priorities related to private fund advisers. Before joining the SEC in 2012, Chris spent seven years in private practice counseling private equity advisers with respect to fund formation, the purchase and sale of portfolio companies and regulatory issues. Chris received his J.D. from Georgetown.

Rachel A. Lavery

US Securities and Exchange Commission

 Email: [email protected] 

Rachel A. Lavery serves as Senior Regulatory Counsel in the Investment Adviser/Investment Company Examination Program in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York Regional Office, counseling the members of the exam program on a wide range of legal issues relevant to the examination program. Prior to joining the SEC staff in 2015, Ms. Lavery worked as an attorney in private practice for eight years, first at Clifford Chance US LLP and then at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, focusing on securities and white collar investigations and litigation. Ms. Lavery has a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, where she was a Senior Editor on the Cardozo Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif, and a B.A. from New York University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.