Renee Jones

Renee Jones is Professor and Dr. Thomas F. Carney Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School. Her scholarship focuses on securities regulation, corporate governance and the federal-state relationship in corporate regulation. Her book Untamed Unicorns: Why Startup Finance is Broken—and How to Fix It will be published by Harvard University Press in 2026.

At Boston College Law School, Professor Jones’ courses include Corporations, Securities Regulation, Startup Company Governance, and Financial Regulation. Jones served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the law school from 2018 to 2021.

From 2021 to 2023, Jones served as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As Division Director, Jones led a team of more than 400 lawyers, accountants and analysts charged with interpreting, implementing and ensuring compliance with the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and related statutory provisions. She oversaw the implementation of the Commission’s rulemaking agenda, including the drafting of proposed and final rules covering topics such as the disclosure of climate-related risks, cybersecurity risks, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), insider trading, executive compensation, and shareholder voting. She also oversaw the Division’s Disclosure Review Program to ensure corporate compliance with SEC disclosure requirements, handling issues ranging from disclosure by China-based issuer and climate-related risk disclosure, to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on corporate issuers.

In 2025, Jones was appointed a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), a global network of corporate governance and finance scholars. A frequent commentator on corporate and securities law issues, Jones has appeared at conferences at universities and professional organizations across the country and abroad, including Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Minnesota, Sorbonne University (Paris), and the London School of Economics.

Before joining BC Law in 2002, Jones practiced for eight years at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow, where she represented private and public companies on corporate and securities matters. Jones received her AB degree from Princeton University and her JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review.