Last week, Regent University School of Law announced that Commissioner Peirce will be joining the law school faculty as an Associate Professor in November. As Dave has explained, the Chair and SEC Commissioners may continue to serve up to approximately 18 months after their terms expire if they are not replaced before then. Commissioner Peirce joined the SEC in 2018, but, as various news outlets have noted, her most recent term began in 2020 and expired in June 2025. So she’s been serving under an extension since then, and I guess this news shouldn’t really come as a surprise (though it did to me, initially) since the timing seems to align pretty closely with the end of that 18-month extension.

Regent University’s announcement describes her deep and varied career in financial regulation — both in academia and public service.

She began serving as a commissioner on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018. Before that, she conducted research on financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and served in several roles connected to federal securities law, including as Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins; and Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Her scholarship and public commentary have emphasized the need for regulatory humility, the importance of capital markets in the economy and society, the appropriate regulation of crypto assets, and the interaction between innovation and regulation. Peirce earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and her bachelor’s degree in economics from Case Western Reserve University. She clerked for Judge Roger B. Andewelt of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Commissioner Peirce’s exact departure date has not been set yet, as Bloomberg reports, and she stressed: “Until I leave the Commission, my focus is on the work of the SEC.” 

– Meredith Ervine