Norm Champ

Norm Champ is a Partner in the Investment Funds Group of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and author of “Going Public: My Adventures Inside the SEC and How to Prevent the Next Devastating Crisis.” Mr. Champ is the former Director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Under his leadership, the SEC adopted a new rule in July 2014 to reform money market mutual funds.

 “Going Public” chronicles Mr. Champ’s experiences at the SEC during the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis and how they shed light on the regulatory process and government policy-making. The book was published March 17, 2017 by McGraw-Hill Education.

Mr. Champ is also a lecturer on investment management at Harvard Law School. He began teaching in the fall of 2015, having just completed a term as Visiting Scholar. He is researching and writing on the regulatory response to the financial crisis. 

While at the SEC, Mr. Champ led the creation of the Division’s Risk and Examination Office which monitors the investment management industry to understand risks that regulations should address.  He was the leader of the SEC’s interactions with the Financial Stability Oversight Council as the Council turned its attention to designating asset management firms as “systemically important.” He also worked on crisis management efforts at securities firms to protect customers of those firms. Mr. Champ also headed the creation of Guidance Updates and Senior Level Engagement, initiatives created to provide transparency to the industry and to engage with boards and senior managements of asset management firms, respectively. Mr. Champ also recommended that the Commission adopt the portion of the Volcker Rule covering private funds and other matters. For his service in the Division at the SEC, Mr. Champ received the Chairman’s Award for Law and Policy in 2014, the Chairman’s Award for Labor Management Relations in 2014 and the Chairman’s Analytical Methods Award in 2013.

Prior to becoming the Director of the Division of Investment Management, he was the Deputy Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and the Associate Regional Director for Examinations in the SEC’s New York Regional Office. In that capacity, he supervised examinations of broker-dealers, investment advisers/investment companies, exchanges, clearing agencies and credit rating agencies.  While at OCIE in 2011, Mr. Champ received the Chairman’s Award for Law and Policy and the Chairman’s Award for Labor-Management Relations.

Mr. Champ participated in the SEC’s Technical Assistance program in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. He is a frequent and seasoned speaker having spoken on securities law topics at SEC programs, Princeton University’s Bendheim Center for Finance, the Practicing Law Institute, ICI, SIFMA, MFA, the Saudi Central Bank, the New York City Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the ACA Compliance Group and others. Mr. Champ coined the term Compliance Calculus, a methodology financial services firms can use when developing their compliance programs, and is seeking a trademark.

Before joining the SEC in 2010, Mr. Champ was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Chilton Investment Company, an investment adviser to long/short equity hedge funds and managed accounts. Prior to joining Chilton in 1999, Mr. Champ was at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell.  From 1990 to 1992, Mr. Champ clerked for the Honorable Charles S. Haight, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Champ is on the Board of Directors of the School of American Ballet and a member of the Board of Trustees of The Spence School.

Mr. Champ has an A.B., summa cum laude, in History from Princeton University; an M.A. in War Studies from King’s College London, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.