PROFESSOR WILLIAMS’ WORK IN THE AREA OF AUDITOR REGULATION TO BE PUBLISHED BY LEWIS & CLARK LAW REVIEW
April 2021 — Professor Sarah Williams has accepted an offer from Lewis & Clark Law Review to publish her recent article, entitled “The Alchemy of Effective Auditor Regulation.” The article is currently scheduled to be published in February 2022.
Prof. Williams’ article was inspired by the proposal of former president Donald Trump to subsume within the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the agency created by Congress to oversee auditors after the Enron debacle. The paper describes the historical struggle to achieve an effective system of regulation for the accountants responsible for reviewing the financial statements of companies with securities that trade in U.S. markets. The article focuses on the processes of verifiability that have been used to bring auditors under a regulatory umbrella and proposes changes to make these processes more effective from the standpoint of audit quality. Prof. Williams will continue to explore the question of how to achieve effective auditor regulation in future articles.
Professor Williams is an Assistant Professor at Penn State Dickinson Law; her research focuses on the intersection of federal securities regulation and accounting. Prior to joining Dickinson Law, Professor Williams practiced law as a securities regulator. She was Deputy Director at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and Associate General Counsel at NASD, now FINRA. She spent several years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, serving as staff attorney and branch chief in its Division of Enforcement, then as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Isaac C. Hunt, Jr. Professor Williams began her legal career as an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C.
Professor Sarah J. Williams currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Penn State Dickinson Law, where her research focuses on the intersection of federal securities regulation and accounting. Prior to joining Dickinson Law, Professor Williams practiced law as a securities regulator. She was Deputy Director at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and Associate General Counsel at NASD, now FINRA. She spent several years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, serving as staff attorney and branch chief in its Division of Enforcement, then as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Isaac C. Hunt, Jr. Professor Williams began her legal career as an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C.