Brooksley Born
| Brooksley E. Born | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 7th Chair of Commodity Futures Trading Commission | |
|
In office 1996–1999 |
|
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Mary Schapiro |
| Succeeded by | William Rainer |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Brooksley Elizabeth Born August 27, 1940 San Francisco, California |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Alexander E. Bennett, Jacob Landau |
| Children | 5 |
| Alma mater | Stanford University, B.A. & J.D. |
| Profession | Lawyer, Public official |
Brooksley E. Born (born August 27, 1940) is an American attorney and former public official who, from August 26, 1996, to June 1, 1999, was chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency which oversees the futures and commodity options markets. During her tenure on the CFTC, Born lobbied Congress and the President to give the CFTC oversight of off-exchange markets for derivatives in addition to its role with respect to exchange-traded derivatives, but her warnings were ignored or dismissed, and her calls for reform resisted by other regulators. Born resigned as chairperson on June 1, 1999, shortly after Congress passed legislation prohibiting her agency from regulating derivatives.
In 2009, Born received the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award, along with Sheila Bair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in recognition of the "political courage she demonstrated in sounding early warnings about conditions that contributed to the current global financial crisis".
Born graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School (San Francisco, California) at the age of 16. She then attended Stanford University, where she majored in English and was graduated with the class of 1961. She initially wanted to become a doctor, but a guidance counsellor at Stanford advised her against medicine, so she majored in English literature instead.
She then attended Stanford Law School, one of only seven women in her class. She was the first female student ever to be named president of the Stanford Law Review. She received the "Outstanding Senior" award and graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1964.
Immediately after law school Born was selected as a law clerk to judge Henry Edgerton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It was during this time that she met her first husband, Jacob C. Landau, who was a journalist covering the Federal courts at the time. Following her clerkship, she became an associate at the Washington, D.C.-based international law firm of Arnold & Porter. Born was attracted to Arnold & Porter because it was one of the few major law firms to have a woman partner at that time, Carolyn Agger, who was the head of the tax practice. Born took a two-year leave of absence from Arnold & Porter to accompany her first husband to Boston, where he had received a fellowship. During that time she worked as a research assistant to law professor Alan Dershowitz.
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