Annette Nazareth
Annette Nazareth is a Senior Counsel with Davis Polk & Wardwell. She previously headed the firm’s Trading and Markets practice in the Financial Institutions Group. Ms. Nazareth is an experienced financial markets regulator, former SEC Commissioner, and recognized authority on financial markets regulatory issues.
Ms. Nazareth has been a key player in financial services regulatory reform for much of her career. She was a highly regarded financial services policymaker for more than a decade. She joined the SEC Staff in 1998 as a Senior Counsel to Chairman Arthur Levitt and then served as Interim Director of the Division of Investment Management. She served as Director of the Division of Trading and Markets from 1999 to 2005. As Director, she oversaw the regulation of broker-dealers, securities exchanges and clearing agencies. She also served as the senior staff member assisting the SEC Chairman on the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. In 2005, she was appointed an SEC Commissioner by President George W. Bush. During her tenure at the Commission, she worked on numerous groundbreaking initiatives, including execution quality disclosure rules, implementation of equities decimal pricing, short sale reforms, corporate debt transparency rules and modernization of the national market system. Ms. Nazareth also served as the Commission’s representative in international meetings as a member of the Financial Stability Forum from 1999 to 2008. Earlier in her career Ms. Nazareth held a number of senior positions at investment banks.
Ms. Nazareth is a frequent speaker and commentator and has authored numerous pieces on financial regulatory issues. She is the Contributing Editor of Getting the Deal Through: Financial Services Compliance 2019, published by Law Business Research Ltd and co-authored a chapter in Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues, published by the American Bar Association in 2019. Ms. Nazareth currently serves on several not-for-profit boards, including: Urban Institute; Watson Institute; St. Albans School of Public Service; Board of Visitors of Columbia Law School, Advisory Board of the Brown University Executive Master in Cybersecurity program; and the SEC Historical Society. She is also a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Advisory Board of Bitfury. Ms. Nazareth previously served on the boards of Brown University; National Cathedral School; and the John T. Walker School for Boys.
Ms. Nazareth has received numerous awards for her work in the financial industry. She received the SIFMA Compliance and Legal Society 2019 Alfred J. Rauschman Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the compliance and legal communities and her dedication to the securities industry. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Traders magazine’s inaugural “Wall Street Women of Excellence” awards. She was nominated by individuals in the trading community and was the only lawyer to receive an award. She also received the Women in Finance Lifetime Achievement Award from Markets Media in 2016, as well as the Security Traders Association—2008 Dictum Meum Pactum Award. In 2001 Ms. Nazareth received the President’s Award given by the Compliance and Legal Division of the Securities Industry Association to a regulator who has made significant contributions to the securities industry, and the Wall Street Letter’s Elan Award for Contributions to Regulatory Issues. The latter award was given in special recognition for her efforts relating to the recovery of the financial markets after the attacks on September 11.
Ms. Nazareth graduated from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and Brown University, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.