Biography

Martha Legg Miller was named the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s first director of the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation in December 2018, leading the new office created by the SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016.

The Office advocates for solutions to address challenges faced by small businesses and their investors raising and deploying capital. “Small business” for the Office spans from early-stage start-ups raising seed capital, to later-stage private companies whose founders and investors are seeking liquidity in the public markets, all the way to smaller public companies. The Office operates as an independent office within the SEC that reports to the entire Commission as well as to multiple committees of Congress.

The Office approaches its advocacy mission by:

• • Engaging with small businesses and their investors to understand their most pressing capital raising issues;
• • Identifying unique capital raising challenges faced by minority-owned, women-owned, rural, and natural disaster-affected small businesses and their investors;
• • Analyzing the potential impact of policy changes likely to significantly affect small businesses and their investors; and
• • Advocating to Congress and the Commission for policy changes.

Prior to joining the SEC, Miller was a partner at the law firm Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, where she represented companies and investors across a spectrum of corporate transactions.

Miller holds bachelor’s degrees in Cognitive Neuroscience and Communications Studies from Vanderbilt University and a juris doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center.