August Dinner Series: Legal Careers in Financial Services

SPEAKER BIOS:

      Naeha Prakash is a corporate associate and a member of Debevoise & Plimpton's Financial Institutions Group and she previously served on the Board of SABA-DC. Naeha’s practice focuses on consumer finance and banking regulatory, transactional and compliance matters. Prior to coming to the firm, Naeha was a Counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she worked on fair lending and other consumer matters. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Prakash worked as a Research Analyst for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Naeha received her J.D. from University of California, Davis School of Law, where she was elected to membership in the Order of the Coif. She received her B.A. cum laude in Economics and English from Georgetown University.

      Scott Lee is Special Counsel in the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Scott Lee specializes in securities, derivatives, and financial policy and regulation.  Scott participates in the regulation of the CFTC's Part 30 foreign futures and foreign options program along with Swap Dealer data reporting requirements.  Prior to joining the CFTC, Scott was an associate in the Government & Internal Investigations Group at Alston & Bird.  Before joining the firm, Scott was in the Regulatory Litigation Group of the General Counsel Department at Credit Suisse and he also worked for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.  Scott received his LLM in Securities and Financial Regulation from Georgetown University Law Center, his JD from The American University, and his BS in Public Administration from The University of Southern California.

      Christopher Hayes serves as the Legislative & Regulatory Counsel at the Small Business Investor Alliance, a trade association representing lower middle market and middle market funds and business development companies (BDCs). Chris acts in his current role as a legal and policy expert, advocating in Congress and with regulatory agencies on issues impacting private equity funds, including SBICs, and BDCs; with particular emphasis on the Small Business Administration and Securities & Exchange Commission. Previously, Chris served as a regulatory counsel at a trade association representing broker-dealers and investment advisers, investigated insider trading cases at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and engaged in private legal practice at a complex civil litigation firm. During law school, Chris worked in the Enforcement Division of the SEC and also on the Banking Committee in the U.S. Senate during the writing of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. Chris received his law degree from the University of San Diego, School of Law and his bachelors degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.