Cross_Meredith

Meredith B. Cross

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Cross_Meredith

Meredith B. Cross

Partner

New York Washington DC + 1 212 295 6644

Meredith Cross is a partner in the Securities and Transactional Departments in the New York and Washington DC offices of WilmerHale. Ms. Cross advises public companies and their boards on disclosure and other corporate finance securities law and corporate governance matters, including SEC enforcement matters involving corporate finance issues. Ms. Cross rejoined the firm in 2013, after having served as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC since 2009. 

While serving as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC, Ms. Cross led the Division's efforts to implement both the Dodd-Frank Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Under her leadership, the Division recommended close to 60 rulemaking releases to the Commission. Ms. Cross testified before Congress numerous times on a broad range of issues including corporate governance, capital formation, risk retention in asset-backed securities offerings, executive compensation oversight, and agency management and budget. 

Before first joining WilmerHale in 1998, Ms. Cross served in a variety of positions in the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC from 1990 to 1998, including Deputy Director, Associate Director (International and Small Business) and Chief Counsel. Prior to first joining the SEC staff, she was an associate and counsel at another large law firm in Atlanta from 1983–1990. She clerked for Judge Albert J. Henderson of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (1982–1983).

Ms. Cross is a frequent speaker at securities and corporate governance law conferences. In 2023 she completed a five-year term as Co-Chair of the Practicing Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Securities Regulation Institute, a member of the Securities Institute Advisory Committee, a Fellow in the American College of Governance Counsel, and previously served as a member of the ABA Corporate Laws Committee. She is President of the SEC Historical Society and a member of its Board of Trustees and a member of the Board of Governors of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. Ms. Cross also serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the ESG Professionals Network.

Recognition

  • Recognized for her exceptional securities practice in the 2006–2009 and 2014–2023 editions of Chambers USA Guide.
  • Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2005–2024 editions of Best Lawyers in America for securities and capital markets law and 2023–2024 editions for corporate governance law. Named by Best Lawyers as Washington DC Securities/Capital Markets "Lawyer of the Year" in 2017. 
  • Recipient of the 2014 Linda Quinn Lifetime Achievement Award by TheCorporateCounsel.net.
  • Named to the NACD Directorship 100, A Who's Who of the American Corporate Governance Community, in 2010.
  • Recognized as a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer in 2003.
  • Named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America list.

Insights & News

View all of Meredith's insights & news

Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, Vanderbilt University Law School, 1982

      Order of the Coif, Vanderbilt Law Review

    • BA, Duke University, 1979

      cum laude

  • Admissions

    • District of Columbia

    • New York

  • Clerkships

    • The Hon. Albert J. Henderson, US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Credentials

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