The Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society has named Lorraine Echavarria, Vice Chair of WilmerHale’s Securities & Financial Services Department and Partner-in-Charge of the Los Angeles Office, to its Board of Trustees.
Echavarria has been named to the Board’s Class of 2027 for a three-year term, serving alongside a prestigious group of lawyers, accountants and other professionals with deep expertise in securities regulation, including Meredith Cross, a Partner in WilmerHale’s Securities and Transactional Departments who served as the SEC Historical Society’s President in 2024 and began serving as Chair of the Society in 2025. Echavarria served on the SEC Historical Society Advisory Board for three years before her election to the Board of Trustees.
Prior to joining WilmerHale, Echavarria spent more than 15 years at the SEC, where she most recently served as Associate Regional Director and head for the enforcement program for the Los Angeles Regional Office. At WilmerHale, she represents public companies, corporate officers, financial institutions, hedge funds and other financial market participants facing government investigations and enforcement actions, conducts internal investigations for boards and audit committees, and provides advice and guidance to businesses on corporate governance and compliance issues.
Cross served in a variety of positions in the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC before first joining WilmerHale in 1998. She returned to the SEC as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance from 2009–2013, leading the Division’s efforts to implement both the Dodd-Frank Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. At WilmerHale, she advises public companies and their boards on disclosure and other corporate finance securities law and corporate governance matters, including SEC enforcement matters involving corporate finance issues.
In addition to Echavarria and Cross, Senior Counsel Joseph Brenner was named to the SEC Historical Society’s Board of Advisors for a three-year term. The Advisors are volunteer leaders committed to preserving and sharing the history of financial regulation. Brenner was the Chief Counsel of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement from 2011–2021, serving as the Division’s principal legal and policy advisor and providing advice and guidance to the Division’s leadership and staff across the country concerning Enforcement investigations and investigative practices, recommendations to the Commission for settled and contested Enforcement actions, and litigation. He was a partner in WilmerHale’s Securities Department for 20 years before joining the SEC staff in 2011.
Founded in 1999, the SEC Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, independent of and separate from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC Historical Society shares, preserves and advances knowledge of the history of financial regulation through its virtual museum and archive, and is governed by an independent Board of Trustees.
To learn more about the virtual museum of financial regulation and to explore a unique collection of oral histories, photos, galleries, programs and documents that tell the story of how the SEC regulates the capital markets, visit sechistorical.org.