The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that University of Virginia School of Law professor Paul G. Mahoney has been appointed to its Investor Advisory Committee.

Mahoney is one of three new members to the group, which represents a wide variety of investor interests, including those of individual and institutional investors, and state securities commissions. Members, who serve a four-year term, advise and consult with the commission on regulatory priorities; issues relating to regulating securities products, trading strategies and fee structures, and the effectiveness of disclosure; and initiatives to protect investor interests and promote investor confidence and the integrity of the securities marketplace. The Dodd-Frank Act authorizes the committee to submit findings and recommendations for review and consideration by the commission.

Mahoney is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law. An expert in securities regulation and corporate law, he served as dean of the Law School from 2008-16.

His teaching and research areas also include law and economic development, corporate finance, financial derivatives and contracts. His book, "Wasting a Crisis: Why Securities Regulation Fails," was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2015.

Mahoney joined the Law School faculty in 1990 after practicing law with the New York firm Sullivan & Cromwell and clerking for Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as academic associate dean, akin to the vice dean role today, at the Law School from 1999 to 2004 and has held the Albert C. BeVier Research Chair and the Brokaw Chair in Corporate Law. He has also worked on legal reform projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Nepal.

Mahoney is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives from 2004 to 2007 and as a director of the American Law and Economics Association from 2002 to 2004. He is a past recipient of the All-University Outstanding Teacher Award and the Law School's Traynor Award for excellence in faculty scholarship.

Mahoney holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The other new members of the Investor Advisory Committee are Lydia Mashburn, managing director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, and J.W. Verret, associate professor of law (with tenure) at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and a senior scholar with the Mercatus Center. 

The committee, which meets four times a year, next convenes on June 14 in Atlanta, in its first-ever meeting outside of Washington, D.C. 

Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia School of Law is the second-oldest continuously operating law school in the nation. Consistently ranked among the top law schools, Virginia is a world-renowned training ground for distinguished lawyers and public servants, instilling in them a commitment to leadership, integrity and community service.

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