Previous Scholars
Robert Bishop
Research Fellow
Robert E. Bishop is an associate professor at Duke Law School. His academic research focuses on corporate governance, securities, and markets more broadly.
Bobby brings a distinguished record of public service. Most recently, he was the senior advisor on financial markets at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the COVID-19 pandemic, where he played an integral role on economic relief efforts. Before his doctoral studies, he advised a Commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to graduate school, he served in the Middle East and East Africa with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Bobby co-founded the International Institute of Law and Finance (IILF), a non-profit, non-partisan institution that seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and financial regulatory policy. IILF weighs in regularly on financial regulatory issues, including by providing financial regulators with summaries of academic research through formal comment letters on proposed SEC rules.
Bobby holds an AB from the University of Chicago, JD and MBA from Columbia University, and MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University. He clerked on the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Edwin Hu
Research Fellow
Edwin Hu is an associate professor at University of Virginia School of Law. His scholarship is focused on the empirical analysis of corporate and securities law and the structure of financial markets. Before joining UVA Law, Professor Hu was a senior economic policymaker, advising the White House’s National Economic Council and as Chief Economist to SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson, Jr.
Professor Hu’s research studies gaps in market structure and financial regulation. His work on the regulation of financial advice shows how advisors who pose the most risk to investors seek out lax legal regimes to avoid accountability. Professor Hu’s study of institutional investors’ voting behavior identified how some funds seek share lending revenue rather than vote in contested corporate matters. And his examination of stock-exchange activity during the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about the effects of outdated market structure on today’s investors.
Professor Hu’s research has helped produce significant policy reforms, including the SEC’s recent institutional voting transparency initiative and its proposal to increase competition for retail stock orders. His recent policy work includes an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund on behalf of securities-law scholars and former senior SEC officials, and a joint petition he co-Chaired with faculty from the Wharton School urging the SEC to modernize Rule 144. Professor Hu’s work has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial Economics, the Stanford Law Review, Management Science, and the Georgetown Law Journal, and his writing has appeared in the Financial Times. His research has been featured prominently across major periodicals including The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
He holds two undergraduate degrees, in economics and applied computational mathematics, from the University of Washington, a masters and Ph.D. in finance from Rice University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Furman Academic Scholar and a Fellow at the Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance.
Satyam Khanna
Research Fellow
Satyam Khanna is the President of Khanna Economic Strategies. Earlier, he was instrumental in building one of the cornerstones of the Inflation Reduction Act, the EPA's $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, accelerating the financing of clean technology projects. He served as the SEC's first-ever sustainability advisor, reporting to the Chair, where he oversaw the agency's release of groundbreaking policies to enhance transparency and accountability in that market. His prior roles include Chief of Staff and Counsel to SEC Commissioner and NYU Law Professor Robert Jackson and as a Civil Servant at the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Stability Oversight Council.
From 2020 to 2021, Satyam was a Resident Fellow at NYU Law's Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance and during that time served on the Biden-Harris transition on the financial regulators' agency review team, as well as the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the PCAOB's Investor Advisory Group.
Satyam started his legal career as an associate at McDermott Will & Emery LLP. He received his BA in biology and political science from Washington University in St. Louis and his JD from Columbia Law School.
Jacob Leibenluft
Research Fellow
Jacob Leibenluft is counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was recently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he was the executive vice president for policy before joining NYU. Previously, he served as deputy director of the White House National Economic Council and as deputy assistant to the President under President Barack Obama. While at the White House -- where he worked from 2011 to 2012 and from 2013 through 2016 -- his portfolio included tax, fiscal policy, consumer protection, and job training, as well as strategic planning for the economic team.
During the 2016 general election campaign, Jacob served as senior policy adviser for Hillary for America, where he led former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s economic policy team. He also served as the economic policy director on former President Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. Jacob began his work in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked in 2009 and 2010 during the height of the financial crisis. After the 2016 campaign, he also worked as a senior adviser at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He is a graduate of Yale University and the recipient of a Truman Scholarship and a Henry Luce Scholarship.
Allison Herren Lee
Senior Research Fellow
Former SEC Acting Chair and Commissioner Allison Herren Lee served as Commissioner from June 2019 through July 2022. She served as Acting Chair of the Commission from January 21, 2021, to April 17, 2021. During her tenure, Commissioner Lee focused on bringing transparency and accountability to markets on issues related to climate change and other ESG-related information.
Commissioner Lee has been a securities law practitioner for 25 years. She is a member of the American College of Governance Counsel, and has written, lectured, and taught courses internationally in Spain and Italy on financial regulation and corporate law. Commissioner Lee served for over a decade in various roles at the SEC, including as counsel to Commissioner Kara Stein and as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. In addition, she has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, was a member of the American Bar Association’s former Committee on Public Company Disclosure, and participated on a USAID project in Armenia assisting in the drafting of periodic reporting and disclosure provisions for a comprehensive law of the Republic of Armenia on Securities Market Regulation.
Prior to government service, Commissioner Lee was a partner at Sherman & Howard LLC, focusing on securities, antitrust, and commercial litigation. A member of the Colorado bar, she holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Colorado and a JD from the University of Denver College of Law, where she was salutatorian and a Chancellor’s Scholar, and served on the Law Review.
Andrew McKinley
Research Scholar
Andrew McKinley is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and an Assistant Professor of Accounting and Information Management (by courtesy) at the Kellogg School of Management. He completed his Juris Doctor at Stanford Law School and his PhD at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His work focuses on the intersection of corporate finance and energy law. He was also a Research Scholar for the Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance at New York University School of Law.
Jessica L. Rollén
Research Scholar
Jessica L. Rollén is an Associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP, where she started after receiving her JD/MBA at New York University School of Law and the Stern School of Business. At NYU, Jessica was a Lederman Fellow in Law and Economics, a Jacobson Scholar, a Kia Motors Scholar, and a Robert McKay Scholar. Prior to graduate school, Jessica was a Researcher at the NYU Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance, and Research Coordinator for Robert Jackson at Columbia Law School’s Program on Corporate Law and Policy. Jessica also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Haley Sylvester
Research Fellow
Haley has been a Research Fellow at the NYU School of Law Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance since 2020, during which time she has worked with politicians, advocates, and academics on complex issues in public and private markets. She previously served as counsel to Commissioner Robert J. Jackson, Jr. at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where she advised the Commissioner on novel and complex issues in securities regulation, financial regulation, and corporate governance. Currently, she is a member of Pryor Cashman’s Private Client practice, where she provides structuring and taxation advice for clients including artists, actors, entrepreneurs, financiers, musicians, and more. Haley previously taught as a Clinical Fellow at the Filmmakers Legal Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she served as the copyright, fair use, and financing expert. After joining Pryor Cashman, she co-authored an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. She began her legal career as a corporate finance associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Prashant Yerramalli
Senior Research Fellow
Prashant Yerramalli provides strategic legal guidance and support to CalPERS leadership and the board in his role as special advisor. He joined CalPERS in October 2025 and will be appointed general counsel upon passing the California Bar Exam, which he is scheduled to take in February 2026.
As interim special advisor, Yerramalli also oversees Enterprise Compliance, Risk & Governance, the Information Security Office, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Program.
Yerramalli has decades of public and private legal experience in investment management and finance. He was chief of staff for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and served as the chair’s lead advisor on strategy, policy enforcement, operations, and rulemaking. He most recently worked as vice president of operations and regulatory affairs for Public.com, an online multi-asset investing platform.
Earlier in his career, Yerramalli worked at Brookfield Asset Management, as well as the law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale.
He began his career in public service as a law clerk to the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald in the Southern District of New York and served both as an enforcement attorney and counselor to SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson.
Yerramalli earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and juris doctor from Harvard Law School.
Jonathon Zytnick
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Professor Jonathon Zytnick joined Georgetown Law in fall 2022 as an Associate Professor of Law after serving as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute. He has published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the American Law and Economics Review, and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. His papers have been awarded best paper at the American Law and Economics Conference, University of Delaware Corporate Governance Symposium, Northern Finance Association, Midwest Finance Association, and University of Toronto Annual Corporate Governance Academic Forum, and have won the Investment and Wealth Institute's 2022 Governance Insight Award and the American Law and Economics Review Best Empirical Paper Award. Jonathon served as Counsel to Commissioner Robert Jackson at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, practiced in the corporate group Paul, Weiss, and clerked for the United States Court of Federal Claims. He earned his PhD in Economics from Columbia University and his JD from Yale Law School. His research focuses on business law and corporate finance, with an emphasis on shareholder voting.