SEC Tenure: 1981-2000. Carmen Lawrence began as a staff attorney at the SEC and rose through the ranks to become head of the SEC’s Northeast Regional Office, the largest of all SEC regional offices at the time. She also supervised the SEC’s Boston and Philadelphia offices. Carmen was the first woman to lead the SEC’s Northeast Regional Office and pioneered the model for integration of SEC examination programs of multiple offices with the SEC’s enforcement program. Carmen left the SEC to become an SEC partner at Fried Frank and, later, at King and Spalding, where she built a wide-ranging and successful legal practice of SEC enforcement defense and regulatory counseling.
From staff attorney to the first woman to lead the SEC’s Northeast Regional Office, Carmen Lawrence not only opened doors — she redesigned the entire floor plan. Carmen’s impact on the SEC still resonates today — her innovations in enforcement and oversight helped define how the agency protects investors and markets.