Recent SEC Developments Speaker Bios
Lauren Assaf-Holmes
Based in Gibson Dunn’s Orange County office, Lauren Assaf-Holmes advises public companies across industries on a variety of ESG, compliance and related corporate law matters as a member of the firm’s Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Group
In connection with annual stockholder meetings, Ms. Assaf-Holmes assists clients through planning, drafting and increasing the effectiveness of their proxy statement disclosures, and she recently contributed to the “Proxy Disclosure Effectiveness” chapter in A Practical Guide to SEC and Proxy Compensation Rules. Her practice also supports clients in connection with the Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposal process, director and officer questionnaires, transitions to virtual meetings, and compliance with stock exchange and proxy advisory firm policies.
Ms. Assaf-Holmes advises clients throughout the year on financial reporting and compliance matters in connection with Securities and Exchange Act reporting (including Section 16 and Schedule 13G/D reports), as well as beginning or expanding ESG-related reporting. She has contributed to the publication Legal Risks and ESG Disclosures: What Corporate Secretaries Should Know and presents on these and related topics.
She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2016 where she served as the
Supervising Editor (Internal) for the Berkeley Journal of International Law and as a Research Assistant to
Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon. Ms. Assaf-Holmes also served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Jacqueline Scott Corley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the Honorable William W. Bedsworth of the California Court of Appeals.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, in English Literature from Knox College in 2010 where she graduated with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Ms. Assaf-Holmes is admitted to practice in the State of California and is a member of the Society for Corporate Governance.
Brian Lane
Brian Lane, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is a corporate securities lawyer with extensive expertise in a wide range of SEC issues. He counsels companies on the most sophisticated corporate governance and regulatory issues under the federal securities laws. He is a nationally recognized expert in his field as an author, media commentator, and conference speaker. BTI Consulting Group named Mr. Lane as a 2019 and 2018 BTI Client Service All-Star among the lawyers “who truly stand out as delivering the absolute best client service”, and a 2014 BTI Client Service All-Star for delivering "outstanding legal skills enveloped in a rare combination of practical business knowledge, extraordinary attention to client needs and noteworthy responsiveness."
He was also recognized for over 14 consecutive years by The Best Lawyers in America® for securities /capital markets law, securities regulation, corporate governance and compliance law, as well as in Who's Who of Corporate Governance Lawyers by Who's Who Legal. Brian was selected by Chambers and Partners as a Leading Lawyer in Securities Regulation in its Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business Guide for since 2013. Clients praise him for his "incredible practical advice," with one suggesting: "I don't think there is any other attorney in private practice that has his level of reach and authority when interacting with the SEC staff." Brian was ranked as one of the world's leading Corporate Governance attorneys in Expert Guides' 2014 Guide to the World's Leading Banking and Finance Lawyers and was named as a Top Lawyer in Washington, D.C. in 2019 by The Washington Post Magazine. Brian was also named as a Top Attorney for Corporate Governance & Compliance Law by Compliance Magazine in Jan. 2013 and in June 2013 by InterContinental Finance Magazine as one of the top 500 lawyers in the world. In addition, Brian was recognized as a 2013 Super Lawyer for securities and corporate finance by Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers. He was also named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington's Top Lawyers for securities law for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and the Leading Lawyer for Corporate Governance: Internal Investigations in the Washington D.C. area by Legal Times in 2008.
Mr. Lane ended a 16 year career with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance where he supervised over 300 attorneys and accountants in all matters related to disclosure and accounting by public companies (e.g. M&A, capital raising, disclosure in periodic reports and proxy statements). In his practice, Mr. Lane advises a number of companies undergoing investigations relating to accounting and disclosure issues.
Since joining the firm in January of 2000, Mr. Lane has counselled companies on many diverse issues relating to the details of federal securities law.
Mr. Lane has represented many of the best-known companies domestically and internationally, assisting them to better understand and comply with the intricacies of the federal securities laws.
Mr. Lane received his law degree in 1983 from the American University, Washington College of Law and earned a B.A. degree magna cum laude in 1980 from Washburn University.
Jim Moloney
James J. Moloney is a corporate partner in the Orange County office of Gibson Dunn and serves as Co‐Chair of the firm’s Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance Practice Group. He is also a member of the firm’s Corporate Transactions Practice Group, focusing primarily on securities offerings, mergers & acquisitions, friendly and hostile tender offers, proxy contests, going‐private transactions and other corporate matters.
Mr. Moloney was with the Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. for six years before joining Gibson Dunn in June 2000. He served his last three years at the Commission as Special Counsel in the Office of Mergers & Acquisitions in the Division of Corporation Finance. In addition to reviewing merger transactions, Mr. Moloney was the principal draftsman of Regulation M‐A, a comprehensive set of rules relating to takeovers and shareholder communications, that was adopted by the Commission in October 1999. Mr. Moloney advises a wide range of listed public companies on reporting and other obligations under the securities laws, the establishment of corporate compliance programs, and corporate governance matters under the securities laws and stock exchange rules. He advises public company boards and committees of independent directors in connection with mergers, stock exchange proceedings, as well as SEC and other regulatory investigations. In addition, he works closely with partners in the firm’s Litigation Practice Group on securities litigation matters, including both internal and external reviews and investigations.
Representative clients include advice to: Half the Aerojet Rocketdyne Board of Directors in responding to a proxy contest initiated and led by Aerojet Executive Chairman Warren Lichtenstein and activist hedge fund Steel Partners; Depomed, Inc. in responding to Horizon Pharmaceutical’s unsolicited exchange offer and consent solicitation to remove the board and acquire the company; a committee of independent directors at B/E Aerospace in connection with the company’s sale to Rockwell‐Collins; St. Jude Medical in its merger with Abbott Laboratories; Kraft Foods in its acquisition of Cadbury Plc.; Ryland Homes in its merger with Standard Pacific (renamed CalAtlantic); HewlettPackard in its acquisition of Aruba Networks; TRI Pointe Homes in its “Reverse Morris Trust” transaction involving the acquisition of Weyerhaeuser Co.’s home‐building business; Third Point in its successful proxy contest at Sotheby’s; Emulex in staving off Broadcom’s hostile bid; PeopleSoft Inc. in its sale to Oracle; as well as numerous other public companies in high profile proxy contests, hostile tender offers and other change of control transactions.
In 1998, Mr. Moloney received his LL.M. degree in securities regulation with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center. He received his J.D. degree cum laude from Pepperdine University in 1994 where he was an editor of The Pepperdine Law Review. In 1992, Mr. Moloney served as a judicial extern for Justice Armand Arabian at the California Supreme Court in San Francisco. He received his B.S. degree in business administration with a major in accounting from Boston University in 1989.
Mr. Moloney has been a member of the California Bar since 1994. Until recently, he served as the Chair of the Proxy
Statements and Business Combinations Subcommittee of the Federal Regulation of Securities Section of the American Bar Association. He also serves on the advisory board of the Center for Corporate Reporting and Governance at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at Cal State Fullerton.
Daniel Ricks
