What Does the SEC’s Focus on ESG Mean for Investment Advisers?

Sarah Buescher is Associate General Counsel at the Investment Adviser Association. She is responsible for core Investment Advisers Act issues as well as ERISA and pension issues. Before joining the IAA, Sarah served as a Branch Chief in the Investment Adviser Regulation Office in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. She also worked in the SEC’s Office of the General Counsel and started her legal career in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Sarah also has industry experience. Between 1999 and 2009, she worked at Vanguard, first in the Legal Department as Associate Counsel and Senior Counsel, and later as Manager of International Compliance in Vanguard’s Compliance Department. Sarah earned her B.S. in Communication Studies from Northwestern University in 1989, and her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 1994. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Amy Greer serves as the Co-Chair of Baker McKenzie’s North American Financial Regulation and Enforcement Practice. Previously, Amy served as chief trial counsel at the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office and managed a team of lawyers overseeing a wide variety of enforcement matters. Amy advises all manner of financial industry clients and SEC reporting companies, in connection with regulatory enforcement investigations and examinations, as well as internal investigations. She provides practical and forward-looking guidance to clients, who seek her advice on matters as diverse as conflict of interest disclosures, sales practices concerns, insider trading/market abuse, financial and periodic reporting and accounting issues, securities offerings, investigations into complex products and trading, and whistleblower concerns. Amy also serves on the steering committees of the Firm’s Global Financial Services Regulatory and Global Financial Institutions Groups.