Sara Hanks, co-founder and CEO of CrowdCheck, is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the corporate and securities field. Ms. Hanks' position prior to founding CrowdCheck was General Counsel of the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was chaired by now-Senator Elizabeth Warren. Ms. Hanks brings a wealth of legal expertise in securities and start-ups to the emerging marketplace for crowdfunding and other online offerings.
At the TARP oversight panel, Ms. Hanks spent 18 months on Capitol Hill investigating the implementation and consequences of the TARP in depth. She examined the government’s intervention in the automotive companies, the execution of the banking “stress tests,” the rescue of AIG, and the international aspects of the financial crisis.
Ms. Hanks has worked with the London law firm Norton Rose, as well as the Washington, D.C., office of Rogers & Wells. She later joined the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Chief of the Office of International Corporate Finance led the team drafting the regulations that put into place a new generation of rules governing the capital-raising process and the way in which non-U.S. companies accessed the U.S. capital markets. She received her law degree from Oxford University.
Ms. Hanks is the author of Bloomberg BNA Securities Practice Portfolio Series No. 205, Regulation of Foreign Access to U.S. Capital Markets. This portfolio volume analyzes the federal securities law issues most likely to be encountered by non-U.S. companies in the U.S. capital markets. It also provides practical guidance for foreign issuers and their counsel, as these companies will encounter a complex regulatory regime in the U.S. that will often be quite different from that of their home country. She is also the author of Bloomberg BNA Corporate Practice Portfolio Series No. 58-3rd, Regulation S: The Safe Harbor for Offshore Securities Transactions. This portfolio volume analyzes the exemptions provided by Regulation S from the registration and prospectus delivery requirements of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. Regulation S codified the SEC's long-standing interpretive position that the registration requirements of the 1933 Act were for the benefit of U.S. investors, and that registration was not required for offers and sales made outside the United States in circumstances in which it is reasonably likely that the securities will come to rest outside the United States. She is also a co-author of Bloomberg BNA Securities Practice Portfolio Series No. 203, Regulation D. This portfolio volume examines the exemptions from Securities Act registration available under Regulation D. The discussion begins with a general overview of the SEC's offering regulation regime, and then examines the key definitions and eligibility requirements for the exemptions available under Securities Act Rules 504, 505 and 506. The portfolio pays particular attention to recent changes to Regulation D, particularly under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, such as the elimination of the no general solicitation provision in Rule 506. She also authored Bloomberg Law Step-by-Step Practical Guidance materials on Regulation A Offerings and Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings.