Hester Maria Peirce is an American lawyer who serves as a Commissioner on the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She previously served as the director of the Financial Markets Working Group at
George Mason University's
Mercatus Center
The Mercatus Center is an American libertarian, free-market-oriented non-profit think tank. Located at George Mason University and directed by the American economist Tyler Cowen, the Mercatus Center works with policy experts, lobbyists, and gov ...
. Peirce was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
in December 2017 to fill a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
vacancy on the SEC. She was sworn in on January 11, 2018, for a term ending in 2020, and her second term expires in 2025. Peirce is a former staff member of the
and of the SEC. In 2016, she was nominated 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 ...
for Commissioner on the SEC, but the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
did not act on her nomination.
Education
Peirce earned her B.A. in economics from
Case Western Reserve University (1993) and her J.D. from
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
(1997).
Career
Legal career
Peirce started her career as a clerk for Judge
Roger Andewelt
Roger Barry Andewelt (August 4, 1946 – August 7, 2001) was a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims from 1987 to 2001. on the
Court of Federal Claims
The United States Court of Federal Claims (in case citations, Fed. Cl. or C.F.C.) is a United States federal courts, United States federal court that hears monetary claims against the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government. It ...
from 1997–1998. Afterwards, she was an associate at
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
law firm
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
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 ...
(today WilmerHale) between 1998 and 2000.
In 2000, Peirce served at the Securities and Exchange Commission, first as a staff attorney in the Division of
Investment Management from 2000 to 2004 and then as
counsel to Commissioner
Paul S. Atkins from 2004 to 2008.
Afterwards, Peirce worked as part of
Senator Richard Shelby's staff on the
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (formerly the Committee on Banking and Currency), also known as the Senate Banking Committee, has jurisdiction over matters related to banks and banking, price controls, d ...
. In that position, Peirce's work mostly centered on the financial regulatory reform in the aftermath of the
financial crisis of 2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
and the oversight of the regulatory implementation of the
Dodd–Frank Act.
Between 2012 and 2017, Peirce was a senior research fellow and the director of the Financial Markets Working Group at the
Mercatus Center
The Mercatus Center is an American libertarian, free-market-oriented non-profit think tank. Located at George Mason University and directed by the American economist Tyler Cowen, the Mercatus Center works with policy experts, lobbyists, and gov ...
at
George Mason University where she also teaches as an
adjunct professor at the
Antonin Scalia Law School. Peirce is a member of the
Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquarter ...
.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
In 2015, Peirce was chosen during the
Obama administration to fill a Republican seat at 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 ...
. Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee attempted to block her nomination because she declined to fully commit to requiring corporations to publicly disclose political donations. Peirce was eventually approved by the Senate Banking Committee, but the full Senate never voted on her nomination.
On July 18, 2017, the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
announced that President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
would nominate Peirce as a Commissioner of the SEC for the remainder of a five-year term expiring on June 5, 2020. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 21, 2017, and sworn in on January 11, 2018. on August 6, 2020, the Senate confirmed Peirce by
voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
for another five-year term expiring on June 5, 2025, and was sworn in on August 17, 2020.
Views
Peirce regularly contributed through books, articles, comments and statements to the debate about
banking regulation
Bank regulation is a form of government regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, designed to create market transparency between banking institutions and the individuals and corporations with whom the ...
. She has been critical of the regulatory expansion enacted in response to the 2008 financial crisis. In her 2012 book ''Dodd-Frank, What It Does and Why It's Flawed'', she argues for economic freedom and against the idea that markets could be improved through regulatory
micromanagement
In business management, micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes, controls, and/or reminds the work of their subordinates or employees.
Micromanagement is generally considered to have a negative connotation, main ...
. She stated that the more important regulation becomes, the less are banks oriented towards their actual duty, which is to service customers with financial opportunities. In 2016, a book she co-edited entitled ''Reframing Financial Regulation: Enhancing Stability and Protecting Consumers'' was published by the Mercatus Center.
Peirce had opinion editorials published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' in 2012 and in 2013, wherein she said it would be more sensible to let the market pare the big banks down to size rather than nationalizing them. Peirce has also authored articles in ''
American Banker
''American Banker'' is a Manhattan-based trade publication covering the financial services industry. Originally a daily newspaper, the print edition ceased publication in 2016, with an online edition continuing to be updated. The first issue of ...
'', ''
The Hill'' and ''FinRegRag''. In January 2017, she spoke at the
American Economic Association in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates_footnotes =
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, subdivision_name ...
, where she discussed reforms of the role of financial regulators a topic she had previously raised in a video by the Mercatus Center in 2015.
In 2018, Peirce argued that lawyers who work for large corporations practice a form of public interest law. She also suggested that her own work at the SEC "indirectly" qualified as public interest law.
On May 25, 2022, Peirce stated that the United States had "dropped the regulatory ball" with respect to cryptocurrency regulation.
In June 2022, Peirc
arguedin her capacity as a Commissioner at 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 ...
that "it is time for the Commission to stop denying categorically spot crypto exchange-traded products."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peirce, Hester Maria
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American women lawyers
Members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
George Mason University alumni
Case Western Reserve University alumni
Yale Law School alumni
Federalist Society members
American economics writers
Trump administration personnel
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr associates
Virginia Republicans
21st-century American women