David A. Vaughan, a partner at Dechert LLP, focuses his practice on investment management, primarily private funds.

Following 18 years of private practice, Mr. Vaughan served from April 2009 until July 2011 as the senior private fund policy adviser in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he advised on all aspects of legal and regulatory policy related to private funds (i.e., hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds). During that period, he played a leading role in advising on Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules implementing those provisions, the Volcker Rule, and the European Union Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, among other things.

During the legislative debate over the regulation of hedge fund advisers leading up to the Dodd-Frank Act, the Wall Street Journal (May 22, 2010) said: “With lawyers from Greenwich, Conn., to California looking for clues to advise their hedge-fund clients on how registration will look, one longtime fund lawyer now working at the SEC, David Vaughan, has emerged as a central figure in the discussion among lawmakers, lawyers and lobbyists.

Mr. Vaughan left Dechert LLP's Washington office in 2008 to join the SEC as an "attorney fellow" in its Investment Management Division. There he has focused on hedge-fund regulation, in talks about which funds should be registered and what information they should disclose to regulators, say people close to the matter. In recent months, Mr. Vaughan has consulted with members of Congress on parameters of fund regulation and frequently talked about examination procedures and other issues with SEC division chiefs, the people say.”

Professor Vaughan, who teaches Securities Regulation: Private Equity and Hedge Funds, earned his B.A. in 1987 from Bowling Green State University and his J.D. in 1990 from Georgetown University Law Center.