Teresa J. Verges, Miami Law’s Investor Rights Clinic director, recently received the 2020 Public Investors Advocate Bar Association Outstanding Service Award. This award is given annually to a PIABA member who demonstrates outstanding service and makes significant contributions to advancing the mission of PIABA, an international bar association whose members represent investors in disputes with the securities industry.
A member of PIABA since 2011, Verges is also a member of the Fiduciary Committee where she is serving her second year as co-chair. She joined the Miami Law faculty in 2011, where she is the founding director of the Investor Rights Clinic, which launched in 2012. The Clinic represents investors who have claims against their brokers in arbitration proceedings before FINRA, but whose claims are too small for them to be able to find legal representation. Professor Verges supervises the students at the Clinic and teaches a seminar on the substantive law of securities arbitration, broker-dealer regulation, professional responsibility and practical skills allowing the students to undertake all aspects of client representation.
Prior to joining the Law School, Verges served as Assistant Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission at the Miami Regional Office, where she led investigations of potential violations of the federal securities laws, including cases involving financial fraud, pay-to-play and municipal securities offerings, market manipulation, insider trading, offering fraud, violations by broker-dealers and investment advisers, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Before her appointment as Assistant Director, Verges served as Regional Trial Counsel, where she supervised litigation of civil injunctive actions and administrative proceedings instituted by the SEC’s Miami Office. While at the Commission, Verges led the investigative or litigation teams on some of the most significant cases brought by the SEC and received awards and recognition for her work.
Read more about the Investor Rights Clinic at Miami Law
