Daniel M. Gallagher, Jr. (born May 31, 1972) is an American lawyer in private practice who served as a Commissioner of the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

(SEC) from 2011 to 2015. Gallagher was appointed to the SEC by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. He also previously served as the deputy director and co-acting director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

Education

Gallagher graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and went on to receive a Juris Doctor from the

Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic La ...

at the Catholic University of America in 1998.

Professional career

Gallagher began his career in the private sector when he joined Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (later WilmerHale) as an associate in the firm's Securities Department. His next position took him to

Fiserv Fiserv, Inc. () is an American multinational company headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin that provides financial technology services to clients across the financial services sector, including: banks, thrifts, credit unions, securities broker ...

Securities Inc. to serve as the company's senior vice president and general counsel. In 2006, Gallagher transitioned to the government sector and joined the SEC as counsel to former SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins and later as counsel to former Chairman Christopher Cox, working on matters involving the Division of Enforcement and the Division of Trading and Markets. In 2008, he became the deputy director of the Division of Trading and Markets and served as Division co-acting director from April 2009 through January 2010. Gallagher was appointed by Barack Obama and served as an SEC Commissioner from November 2011 to October 2015 After his time with the SEC, Gallagher returned to the private sector and in 2016 became president of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services consulting firm. He changed jobs in 2017 and joined global pharmaceutical company Mylan N.V. as the chief legal officer. Gallagher rejoined

WilmerHale Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as Hale & Dorr and WilmerHale, is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is co-headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It was formed in 2004 thr ...

in September 2019 where he serves as deputy chair of the firm's Securities Department. His practice includes advising corporate boards and management on the full range of legal and strategic issues they face, and counseling financial services and accounting firms in investigations, regulatory proceedings and policy matters. In May 2020, Robinhood announced that Gallagher would be joining the company as Chief Legal Officer.

Professional affiliations

Gallagher serves on the boards of the

National Association of Corporate Directors The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is an independent, not-for-profit, section 501(c)(3) founded in 1977 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. NACD's membership includes the entire boards of 1,700+ corporations as well as ...

(NACD), a leading membership organization for corporate board directors, and Symbiont, a blockchain technology company developing products in smart contracts and distributed ledgers for use in capital markets; and Robinhood, a commission-free investing app. He was formerly a non-executive director of the Irish Stock Exchange. He is also on the advisory boards for the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Corporate Governance, part of the Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute in Drexel University's LeBow College of Business.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Daniel M. 1972 births Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences alumni Columbus School of Law alumni Living people Members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Obama administration personnel