History Associates to Moderate Panel Discussion on Financial Scandals, Legislation, and The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    ROCKVILLE, MD, October 29, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- History Associates, the leading U.S. historical services firm, is moderating a panel of key industry policymakers in a discussion of how financial scandals drive reform legislation, as evidenced by the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. The panel is presented by the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society and will be broadcast live online on www.sechistorical.org on Thursday, November 15, 2012, from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET. The video broadcast is free and accessible without prior registration.

"A major point of contention in this year's presidential race has been whether or not financial regulation has successfully responded to the financial crisis of 2008," noted Robert Colby, panel moderator from History Associates and co-curator of an upcoming Gallery on financial scandals and the legislation they inspired. This Gallery will appear in the virtual museum and archive of the history of financial regulation at www.sechistorical.org. "By looking to past experiences, our panelists will provide a useful case study examination of how the legislative process responds to such crises, and what lessons we can draw for future application."

Esteemed panelists include Daniel Goelzer, former Board Member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; Peggy Peterson of Baker Hostetler LLP, former Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee; Dean Shahinian, Senior Counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Linda Chatman Thomsen of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and former Director, SEC Division of Enforcement. They will examine the context in which the Sarbanes-Oxley Act took shape, from the financial scandals of 2001-2002 and the resulting public outcry to the pressures exerted by market downturns and the impending election.

The virtual museum and archive at www.sechistorical.org will permanently open the Gallery on financial scandals and the legislation they inspired on May 1, 2013. The Gallery is curated by History Associates and will cover case studies of financial scandals and responsive legislation, from the Kansas Blue Sky Law of 1911 to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

About the SEC Historical Society
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Historical Society is a nonprofit organization that shares, preserves and advances knowledge of the history of financial regulation through its virtual museum and archive at www.sechistorical.org, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2012. It is independent of and separate from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and receives no funding from the public sector. The virtual museum and archive is free and accessible worldwide at all times and has welcomed more than one million visitors since its founding a decade ago.

About History Associates
For over thirty years the historians and archivists at History Associates have demonstrated that history is valuable in the market as well as the marketplace of ideas. They provide professional historical research, corporate histories, exhibit content, interpretive planning, archival services, records management, and collections management to clients throughout the United States and around the world. History Associates strives to be The Best Company in History, serving corporate, government, legal, and nonprofit clients from its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, with an office in southern California. For more information, call (301) 279-9697 or visit www.historyassociates.com.

# # #