A commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2002 to 2008, Paul Atkins is known for advocating for better transparency and consistency in the SEC's decision-making and enforcement activities, as well as for smarter regulation that considers costs and benefits. He represented the SEC at various meetings of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and international bodies, including the Transatlantic Economic Council, Transatlantic Business Dialogue, World Economic Forum (Davos), and the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum. Prior to his appointment to the SEC, he was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked on regulatory compliance, internal controls, and risk-management issues for financial services firms. A lawyer by training, Atkins also represented U.S. and foreign clients on corporate finance and business combination transactions while at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he spent a number of years in the firm's Paris office. He was admitted as conseil juridique in France in 1988. At AEI, Atkins works on issues related to U.S. and international regulation of the financial services industry.