We thought you might like to learn more about members in the ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section, so we have restarted our Section Member Spotlight Series. Prior posts in this series can be found here, on the Section’s legacy Notice and Comment blog that merged with the Yale Journal on Regulation‘s blog in 2015.

The next profile in our member spotlight series is Connor Raso. Many thanks to Professor Bill Funk for nominating Connor for this series. Connor is a “Special Senior Counsel” at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  He has spent most of his time in the SEC’s Office of General Counsel, advising on rulemaking and enforcement projects and representing the SEC at ACUS.  Much of the rulemaking work involves administrative law and statutory interpretation issues.  He is currently working as a senior advisor to the Corporation Finance Division Director.  He regularly confronts administrative law issues in that role as well but the focus is a little more on policy and programmatic goals.

Who knew that Connor was once in telephone sales? Please see below for more on Connor.

Q: What is your current or past position within the ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section?

I served on the Section Council from 2014 to 2017.  I also co-chaired the Section’s Rulemaking Committee and co-drafted a successful resolution in 2016 on modernizing the APA. 

Q: How has membership in the ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section furthered your career?

I have met so many great mentors and friends through the Section – too many to name!  I got involved in ACUS largely through the Section.  I also learned a lot of admin law through working on Section projects and attending Section programs.

Q: What was your first legal job or first job? 

I did telephone sales back in the late 1990’s.  Customers got a catalog in the mail and would call to place an order (remote control cars, trucks, and planes).  My job was to help them order the right stuff and to sell them some extras.  I was pretty good at it!  Just a few years later the job was defunct as ordering moved online.

Q: What do you do when you are not doing administrative law? 

I’m mostly helping my wife Jane chase after our two young boys.  It’s an endless but fun parade of kids sports and birthday parties.  This is my first year coaching Little League!

Q: What has been the most exciting event of your career that involves administrative law? 

After finishing a judicial clerkship, I started in 2011 at the very new CFPB.  The CFPB had so many issues of first impression and I got to play a key role in the agency’s approach to rulemaking and cost-benefit analysis.  I also helped on a number of important Dodd-Frank Act rulemakings (to reform the mortgage market) that were on a tight timeframe.  The energy and excitement of the early CFPB days is hard to match.

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Want to join the section? Visit www.americanbar.org/adminlaw and choose “Join the Section.” Or contact the ABA customer service department at 1-800-285-2221 to join. Questions? Email anne.kiefer@americanbar.org. 

Linda D. Jellum is a former Chair of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, is the Ellison Capers Palmer Sr. Professor of Tax Law at the Mercer University School of Law and will be joining the University of Idaho College of Law as a Professor of Law this summer.