Troy A. Paredes has served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since August 1, 2008. Commissioner Paredes was appointed to the SEC by President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 on June 30, 2008 to replace Paul S. Atkins

Paul S. Atkins

Paul S. Atkins is Managing Director of Patomak Partners LLC, which provides consulting services regarding financial services industry matters, including regulatory compliance, risk and crisis management, trade analysis, and strategy. He is also Senior Partner of Sphere Consulting LLC, a public...

, a Republican commissioner, who was retiring at the end of his term.

Legal career

After graduating from law school, Troy A. Paredes practiced law in California at prominent national law firms working on a variety of transactions and legal matters involving financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.

According to a 2008 Directorship report, "Paredes was a member of the corporate securities group at Irell & Manella

Irell & Manella

Irell & Manella LLP was founded in 1941 by lawyers Lawrence E. Irell and Arthur Manella , and has grown to 220 lawyers. It currently has two locations in Southern California: Century City and Newport Beach. Irell is well known for both intellectual property litigation and general business...

, an associate in the corporate and energy and natural resources departments at Steptoe & Johnson

Steptoe & Johnson

Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm recognized for representation of clients before governmental agencies, advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, and advice in guiding business transactions...

, and worked in the corporate department at O'Melveny & Myers." A slightly earlier Wall Street Journal Law Blog article reports most of this information, adding that Paredes "focus[ed] on leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

 and other financings."

Academic Life

Troy A. Paredes began his academic career as a Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of Law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 in 2001 and Business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 in 2007 (by courtesy) at Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

. He has also visited at UCLA as well as Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 and is currently on leave. He has authored numerous academic articles and is a co-author (beginning with the 4th edition) of a multi-volume securities regulation treatise with Louis Loss

Louis Loss

Louis Loss was a legal scholar considered by many to be the intellectual father of modern securities law. He is best known for his treatise Securities Regulation, which is still considered to be the definitive authority on the subject and which has been cited over 50 times by the Supreme Court of...

 and Joel Seligman

Joel Seligman

Joel Seligman is the current President of the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York, and is one of the leading authorities on securities law in the U.S..-Biography:...

 entitled Securities Regulation.

Educational Background

Troy A. Paredes graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1992. He went on to receive his J.D. from Yale Law School

Yale Law School

Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

 in 1996.

Actions on the Commission

According to the WSJ and Directorship reports, "[i]n working papers in 2006 and 2007, Paredes took issue with a controversial SEC rule increasing oversight of hedge fund advisors. The 2004 rule, adopted despite opposition of Atkins and fellow Republican commissioner Cynthia Glassman

Cynthia Glassman

Dr. Cynthia Aaron Glassman of Alexandria, Virginia was a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs....

, was overturned by a federal appeals court in 2006." The WSJ Law Blog went on to say that Paredes favored the SEC "recommend[ing] best practices and leav[ing] compliance up to the industry."