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Norm Champ is a senior partner in the Investment Funds Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and the former Director of the Division of Investment Management at the SEC. Under his leadership, the SEC adopted a new rule in July 2014 to reform money market mutual funds.

In November 2019 Champ published his latest book, Mastering Money: How to Beat Debt, Build Wealth, and Be Prepared for Any Financial Crisis. The book is designed for Americans who are living in fear of financial problems and want to recapture their piece of the American dream. In simple language, the book guides readers to learn the fundamentals of getting their finances in order and learning how to invest in the future.

Champ’s previous book, published in 2017, is titled Going Public: My Adventures Inside the SEC and How to Prevent the Next Devastating Crisis. The book chronicles his experiences at the agency and how they shed light on the regulatory process and government policy making. The book was favorably reviewed by many publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Pensions & Investments, Think Advisor, Above The Law and Hedge Fund Law Report.

Champ is also a lecturer on investment management law at Harvard Law School. He began teaching his class in 2008.

Norm Champ is a senior partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he heads up the regulatory solutions practice in the Investment Funds Group. Norm counsels the most sophisticated private fund sponsors in the world on complying with the constantly changing regulatory environment in the United States and other countries. Private fund sponsors seek out Norm’s advice because he can bring to bear his perspective as a former regulator, a former partner of a private fund manager and now a law firm partner. Norm’s large and wide-ranging practice, including defending numerous SEC examinations, gives him unparalleled insight into the most pressing regulatory issues in the market

While at the SEC, Champ led efforts to monitor the investment management industry to understand risks that regulations should address. He was the leader of the SEC’s interactions with the Financial Stability Oversight Council as the Council turned its attention to designating asset management firms as “systemically important.” He also worked on crisis management efforts at securities firms to protect customers of those firms. For his service at the SEC, Champ received the Chairman’s Award for Law and Policy in 2014, the Chairman’s Award for Labor Management Relations in 2014 and the Chairman’s Analytical Methods Award in 2013.

Prior to becoming the Director of the Division of Investment Management, he was the Deputy Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and the Associate Regional Director for Examinations in the SEC’s New York Regional Office. In that capacity he supervised examinations of broker-dealers, investment advisers/investment companies, exchanges, clearing agencies and credit rating agencies.  While at OCIE in 2011, Champ received the Chairman’s Award for Law and Policy and the Chairman’s Award for Labor-Management Relations.

Champ participated in the SEC’s Technical Assistance program in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong. He is a frequent and seasoned speaker having spoken on securities law topics at SEC programs, Princeton University’s Bendheim Center for Finance, the Practicing Law Institute, AIC, the Saudi Central Bank, the New York City Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the ACA Compliance Group, MFA, ICI and others.

Before joining the SEC in 2010, Champ was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Chilton Investment Company, an investment adviser to long/short equity hedge funds and managed accounts. Prior to joining Chilton in 1999, Champ was at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. From 1990 to 1992, Champ clerked for the Honorable Charles S. Haight, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Champ is on the Board of Directors of the School of American Ballet.

Champ has an A.B., summa cum laude, in History from Princeton University; an M.A. in War Studies from King’s College London, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.