Donald Trump may have chosen another SEC commissioner — this one a Democrat.

Robert Jackson, Columbia University law professor and director of Columbia Law School's program on corporate law and policy, is the frontrunner to fill the empty Democratic seat on the commission, unnamed sources tell Sarah Lynch and Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters. The wire service notes that as recently as last week "a senior official at the White House said the president is close to naming its SEC nominees." Yet a White House spokeswoman and Jackson himself both did not comment on Jackson being an SEC commissioner contender.

Robert Jackson Columbia University Professor of Law and Director, Program on Corporate Law & Policy

The news of Jackson leading the pack for the open Democratic SEC seat comes less than two weeks after similar news broke about George Mason University's Hester Peirce being the leading contender for the open Republican SEC seat. (Reuters still points to Peirce as the frontrunner for that spot.)

If Trump does pick Jackson and Peirce and the Senate confirms them, then for the first time since October 2015 the SEC would have all five commissioner seats filled. Yet even if that happens quickly, the commission might not stay full for the summer; SEC commissioners are appointed for staggered, five-year terms, normally ending on June 5, and the term of current Commissioner Kara Stein (who holds the second Democratic seat on the commission) expired this month. However, by law, SEC commissioners may stay in office for up to 18 months after the term ends or until they are replaced.

The other two current commissioners are Jay Clayton, who joined the SEC as Chairman earlier this month, and Commissioner Michael Piwowar, who holds the second Republican seat on the commission and served as acting Chairman before Clayton was confirmed.

Jackson is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, Pembroke College at the University of Oxford, the Wharton School at UPenn, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Havard Law. He joined Columbia Law School in 2010 after advising the U.S. Treasury Department officials and weighing on the TARP program. He also worked in Wachtell, LIpton, Rosen and Katz's executive compensation department. Reuters notes that Jackson has: pushed for creating SEC rules that would force publicly traded companies to make disclosures about their political spending, and; fought the SEC over data partially available through the SEC's IAPD (gathered from fund firms' and other RIAs' form ADVs). 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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