Trump nominates Columbia Law School professor to SEC

Robert Jackson, a prominent professor at Columbia Law School, will be nominated for the SEC’s remaining vacant Democratic commissioner seat.

US President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Jackson earlier this month, amid a wave of 40 nominations across different administration posts.

Jackson joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 2010. Prior to that he served as a senior policy adviser at the US Department of the Treasury, where he oversaw the development of policies designed to give shareholders a say on pay and improve the disclosure of executive bonuses, according to his biography on the university’s website. He has also worked in the executive compensation practice of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz.

Jackson took on the SEC between 2013 and 2014 regarding a Freedom of Information Act request for publicly filed data by investment advisers, which was documented by the New York Times. He also chaired an effort to petition the SEC to require public companies to disclose when they spend shareholder money on politics, according to his biography.

Jackson is the second pending SEC nominee, with President Trump nominating Hester Peirce in July. If both nominees are confirmed by the Senate, it will be the first time the SEC has had all five commissioner seats filled since 2015.