Margaret McGuire is a nationally recognized securities enforcement strategist who advises companies, boards, executives, and financial institutions on navigating regulatory risk, government scrutiny, and high-stakes enforcement matters. With more than twenty years of senior leadership experience at the SEC, she brings a rare combination of insider-level insight, tactical judgment, and crisis-management expertise that helps clients both prevent regulatory exposure and respond effectively when investigations arise.

Margaret is widely recognized for her ability to identify emerging risks before they become enforcement problems. As Senior Counsel to the SEC's Director and Deputy Director of Enforcement, she helped shape Division-wide enforcement policy and strategy, advising agency leadership on some of the SEC's most sensitive and consequential matters. She reviewed hundreds of enforcement recommendations, guided responses to complex and precedent-setting issues, and led corrective-action and risk-mitigation initiatives designed to strengthen internal controls and institutional accountability.

Clients rely on Margaret for practical, business-focused counsel in areas including securities enforcement, financial reporting, disclosure controls, internal investigations, regulatory remediation, ESG and climate-related risk, governance, and crisis response. Her deep understanding of how regulators assess conduct, prioritize investigations, and evaluate cooperation positions her as a trusted advisor when organizations face heightened scrutiny from regulators, auditors, shareholders, lawmakers, or the media.

As Chief of the SEC's Financial Reporting and Audit (Fraud) Group, Margaret led teams of attorneys and accountants investigating financial reporting, disclosure, accounting, and audit-related misconduct. She also helped develop the SEC's pioneering proactive methodologies for detecting financial reporting fraud and collaborated on advanced risk-assessment technology used to identify potential issuer misconduct. Her experience enables clients to proactively strengthen compliance frameworks, assess vulnerabilities, and address concerns before they escalate into enforcement actions.

Margaret has also led major cross-agency initiatives during periods of market disruption and systemic risk. She served as Coordinator of the SEC's Bank Failure Working Group during the Regional Banking Crisis, helping direct enforcement strategy involving systemic financial risk, insider trading, and false filings. She also led the SEC's Climate and ESG Task Force, overseeing risk-based investigative initiatives and coordinating with other federal agencies on emerging disclosure and governance issues.

Earlier in her SEC career, Margaret served as Branch Chief of the Financial Fraud Task Force, supervising investigations involving accounting fraud, disclosure failures, and parallel criminal matters. Her extensive experience working alongside enforcement officials, regulators, and prosecutors provides clients with valuable insight into how government investigations develop, and how to position organizations for the strongest possible outcomes.

In addition to her enforcement background, Margaret brings more than a decade of academic experience teaching Securities Regulation and Financial Accounting at The Catholic University of America. She has also coached nationally recognized securities law moot court teams to top-tier results, and frequently speaks on securities enforcement trends, financial reporting risk, and regulatory developments.