About Jeff

Jeff Connaughton holds an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago and a JD from Stanford Law School.

He worked for four years as an investment banker, first at Smith Barney and then at E. F. Hutton.

In 1987, he joined Joe Biden’s presidential campaign as Deputy National Finance Director and thereafter became his Special Assistant when Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee.

After graduating from Stanford, he clerked for Chief Judge Abner Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, then followed Mikva as his Special Assistant when Mikva was appointed Counsel to President Bill Clinton.

In 2000, along with Jack Quinn and Ed Gillespie, Connaughton founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, one of DC’s premier lobbying firms.

Now retired from politics, he lives in Savannah, Georgia.

“I’m going to address briefly four questions, all of which go to the integrity and competitiveness of our capital markets.

First, was there fraud at the heart of the financial crisis?

Second, has the law enforcement response so far achieved effective levels of deterrence against financial fraud?

Third, are federal law enforcement agencies sufficiently capable of detecting fraud and manipulation, particularly in markets that are increasingly complex?

And finally, should Wall Street itself care about all this?

In short, my answers would be yes, no, no and yes.”