Daniel M. Gallagher

Daniel M. Gallagher, Jr. (born May 31, 1972) is an American lawyer who is currently the Chief Legal, Compliance and Corporate Affairs Officer at Robinhood.^[2][3] He served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2011 to 2015.^[4][5] He also previously served as the deputy director and co-acting director of the Division of Trading and Markets.

Daniel M. Gallagher
Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
In office November 7, 2011 – October 2, 2015
President	Barack Obama
Chairwoman	Mary Schapiro Mary Jo White
Preceded by	Kathleen L. Casey
Succeeded by	Jay Clayton
Personal details
Born	(1972-05-31) May 31, 1972 (age 53)[1]
Political party	Republican[1]
Education	Georgetown University (BA) Catholic University of America (JD)
Profession	Lawyer

Education

Gallagher graduated from Georgetown University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and went on to receive a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in 1998, where he was also a member of the law school's law review.^[4]

Professional career

Gallagher began his career in the private sector when he joined Wilmer, Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as WilmerHale, as an associate in the firm's Securities Department. His next position took him to Fiserv Securities Inc. to serve as the company's senior vice president and general counsel.^[4][6][7]

In 2006, Gallagher transitioned to the government sector and joined the SEC as counsel to former SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins and later as counsel to former Chairman Christopher Cox,^[4] working on matters involving the Division of Enforcement and the Division of Trading and Markets. In 2008, he became the deputy director of the Division of Trading and Markets and served as Division co-acting director from April 2009 through January 2010.^[4][7] In 2010, Gallagher returned to WilmerHale as a partner in both the Broker-Dealer Compliance and Regulation Practice Group and the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Practice Group.^[8][3] Gallagher was appointed by Barack Obama and served as an SEC Commissioner^[9] from November 2011 to October 2015.

After his time with the SEC, Gallagher returned to the private sector and in 2016 became president of Patomak Global Partners, a financial services consulting firm. In 2017, he joined global pharmaceutical company Mylan N.V. as the chief legal officer.

Gallagher rejoined WilmerHale in September 2019 where he served as partner and deputy chair of the firm's Securities Department.^[10] His practice focused on advising corporate boards and management on the full range of legal and strategic issues they faced, and counseling financial services and accounting firms in investigations, regulatory proceedings and policy matters.^[11]

In May 2020, Robinhood announced that Gallagher would be joining the company as Chief Legal Officer.^[12]

Professional affiliations

Gallagher serves as a fellow for the Columbia Law School’s program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets. He is on the advisory boards of the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.^[13] He also serves on the Board of Visitors at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.^[14]

Gallagher previously served on the board of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD),^[15] a leading membership organization for corporate board directors, and previously served on Robinhood's Board of Directors^[16] before joining the company as its Chief Legal Officer.^[17]

He was formerly a non-executive director of the Irish Stock Exchange.^[18]

He served on the advisory board of the Center for Corporate Governance, part of the Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute in Drexel University's LeBow College of Business.^[19]