Megan Barbero
At the helm of the SEC’s legal team, Megan successfully managed a 160-person office. She nimbly developed and executed the agency’s litigation strategy for numerous high-profile appeals and amicus briefs in private securities litigation. Megan served as a trusted advisor for the agency, supervising legal advice on all regulatory initiatives and enforcement actions, while developing risk mitigation strategies for program-wide challenges to enforcement proceedings. Megan also masterfully managed the SEC’s response to congressional oversight requests and internal investigations, even providing congressional testimony on oversight responses.
Prior to joining the SEC, Megan served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives. In this role, she counseled House committees on a range of oversight and legislative topics and conducted strategic litigation for the House and its committees in the district courts, courts of appeals, and the Supreme Court.
Earlier in her career, Megan served as an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where she represented the United States and its agencies as lead counsel in the federal courts of appeals in a diverse range of cases presenting questions of constitutional, statutory, and administrative law.
Megan also has significant experience in the private sector. While working at a prominent international law firm, she represented clients in state and federal trial courts and drafted briefs in dozens of Supreme Court and appellate cases. Megan honed her skill set advising clients, managing teams of associates, developing winning litigation strategies, and guiding briefs from inception to a successful close.
Related Practices
Related Industries
Experience
Government Experience
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the General Counsel
- General counsel
- Deputy general counsel
- U.S. House of Representatives, Office of General Counsel
- Deputy general counsel
- Associate general counsel
- Attorney, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Representative Matters
Matters while at the SEC:
- Led the office of general counsel’s review of dozens of complex policy initiatives and rulemakings, including rules on cybersecurity risk disclosures, climate-related disclosures, beneficial ownership reporting, executive compensation, 10b5-1 trading plans, investment company names, private fund advisers, privacy of consumer financial information and safeguarding customer information, shortening the settlement cycle, and Regulation NMS amendments
- Represented the office of general counsel at public Commission meetings and responded to commissioner questions, including on statutory authority for SEC rulemakings and compliance with administrative law requirements
- Worked closely with DOJ’s Office of the Solicitor General in SEC v. Jarkesy and managed legal strategy for implementing the Supreme Court’s decision that seeking civil money penalties for fraud in administrative proceedings violates the Seventh Amendment jury trial right
- Directed appellate and amicus strategy and led a team of appellate attorneys in defending the SEC climate-disclosure rule in multi-district litigation consolidated in the Eighth Circuit
- Advised the Commission on the Congressional Review Act, including proceedings on the cybersecurity disclosure rule and the staff accounting bulletin on crypto assets, and supervised the agency’s legal response
- Managed internal investigations, including review of SEC control deficiency related to separation of enforcement and adjudicatory functions
Matters while at the DOJ:
- Briefed and argued appeals concerning the judicial review scheme for SEC administrative proceedings and the constitutionality of the SEC’s administrative law judges under the Appointments Clause
- Argued multiple Federal Circuit appeals, including before the en banc court, on issues including the scope of the “on sale” bar, final agency action, and potentially conflicting statutory provisions
- Successfully argued a Copyright Act question of first impression before the D.C. Circuit, which held that streaming video content from abroad to viewers in the United States infringed the public-performance right
- Successfully defended the Food and Drug Administration’s interpretation of its statutory authority to impose civil money penalties for sales of cigarettes to minors based on each separate regulatory violation
- Successfully defended the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in multiple appeals seeking significant damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act
Other matters:
- Advised House Committees, including Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, on their oversight investigations and strategic litigation
- Successfully briefed and argued a case holding that the Judiciary Committee had Article III standing to seek judicial enforcement of a subpoena issued to a former executive branch official
- Successfully defended a House resolution permitting proxy voting during the COVID-19 pandemic as immune from suit under the Speech or Debate Clause
- Successfully argued a First Circuit criminal appeal and obtained remand and resentencing
- Served as a member of a team that successfully obtained Federal Circuit reversal of a district court decision that asserted patent claims were not invalid for obviousness
Insights
Credentials
Education
- J.D. Stanford Law School 2005
- Order of the Coif
- B.A. Government magna cum laude Harvard University 2001
- Phi Beta Kappa
Bar Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Massachusetts
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Clerk Experience
- The Honorable Pamela Ann Rymer U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Professional Memberships and Activities
- Barrister, Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court
- Member, Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni, Inc. (ASECA)
Recognition
- DOJ Civil Division Awards for Administrative Law Judge Appointments Clause cases, Affordable Care Act Contraceptive Coverage cases, and mentorship