Roel C. Campos is a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC, office and is chair of the Securities Enforcement practice. Roel’s practice consists of advising and defending corporate management teams and boards of directors with respect to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and internal investigations, criminal prosecutions, securities and internal regulation, and corporate governance.
Beginning in 2002, Roel was appointed twice by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the US Senate as a commissioner of the SEC, and served until 2007. He served for five years as the commission’s liaison to the international regulatory community and became well known among international regulators. He also facilitated the development of international auditing and accounting standards through his work as chair of the Monitoring Group and vice chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions.
During his tenure, Roel presided over hundreds of complex enforcement cases, applying the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. He has spoken and published extensively in the areas of the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, corporate governance, director liability, corporate penalties, international accounting and auditing standards, Securities Act reform, self-regulatory organization and market reform, retirement investment protection, research analyst conflicts and the internationalization of the securities markets.
From 2008 – 2013, Roel served with US Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other national security experts on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), the oldest and one of the most prestigious of the presidential citizens’ advisory boards.
Prior to being appointed to the SEC, Roel was an entrepreneur and one of two principal owner-executives of El Dorado Communications, a radio broadcasting company headquartered in Houston. He began his career after graduating from the US Air Force Academy and served as an officer in the US Air Force. After attending law school, he worked in Los Angeles for major law firms as a corporate transactions/securities lawyer and litigator. Roel also served as a federal prosecutor for five years in the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles where he prosecuted complex and violent narcotics cartels and, in a celebrated trial, convicted defendants for the kidnapping and murder of a Drug Enforcement Agency agent. Roel serves on several corporate boards.
Highlighted Lectures and Publications
Speaker, “The SEC Speaks: Compliance Inspections and Examinations,” Practising Law Institute, Washington, DC, Feb. 20, 2015
“Global Capital Markets Perspectives,” Practising Law Institute, April 25, 2012
Speaker, “Regulation & Risk Thought Leadership Symposium,” Regulatory Compliance Association, April 16, 2012
Speaker, “Shaping the Future,” Council of Institutional Investors’ Spring Conference, April 3, 2012
Speaker, “Demonize the Executives: Corporate Governance in a Post Dodd-Frank World,” Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) 11th Annual Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Expo, March 21, 2012
“Roel Campos on Standardizing Accounting Principles, Self-Funding the SEC,” Outside Publication, Bloomberg Brief, Feb. 24, 2012
Speaker, “Board Diversity and Composition: Hiring, Firing and Evaluating the New Realities of Governance,” Seventh Annual Directors’ College for Stanford University, June 21, 2011
Speaker, “Anti-Corruption Risk Assessments and Third-Party Due Diligence,” GCM Parker’s Second Annual Business Ethics Anti-Corruption & Fraud Prevention Strategies in CEE, SEE & CIS, Prague, March 24, 2011
