Dalia Blass is the Senior Investment Management Partner and a partner in S&C’s Financial Services Group. Her practice focuses on providing strategic and regulatory advice to asset managers, registered and private funds, fund boards and their service providers across the range of regulatory, governance, compliance, examination and enforcement matters they face. She has a unique and deep expertise in the intricate legal, risk and compliance issues raised by existing and new regulation under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act, including with respect to the design and structuring of innovative fund products and addressing challenging governance matters. Her leadership in these areas support clients as they navigate the increasingly complex global, federal and state regulatory landscape facing asset managers.
Ms. Blass joined the Firm in 2023 from BlackRock, where she was Senior Managing Director, Global Head of External Affairs and a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee. At BlackRock she led teams that managed the firm’s key regulatory, policy and reputational challenges and opportunities, including with respect to the firm’s sustainability priorities.
Prior to BlackRock, Ms. Blass served as the Director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Under her leadership, the Division of Investment Management finalized more than 70 regulatory initiatives to modernize the regulatory framework for investment companies and investment advisers, improve the investor experience through modernized disclosure and outreach efforts, elevate the standards of conduct for financial professionals, and re-evaluate the role and responsibilities of fund boards of directors. Ms. Blass was a member of the SEC’s senior-level COVID-19 Market Monitoring Group and contributed to the staff’s report on the U.S. Credit Markets Interconnectedness and Effects of the COVID-19 Economic Shock. She also co-chaired the Financial Stability Board’s Technical Experts Group on Money Market Funds. A summary of Division of Investment Management Activities under Ms. Blass is available here.
Ms. Blass previously served in a number of leadership roles in the Division of Investment Management for a total of 14 years at the SEC. She has received the SEC’s Distinguished Service Award and the Manuel F. Cohen Award, was named in Barron’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance and was most recently named to the Forbes ‘50 Over 50’ list for 2024. The only law firm partner named in the Investment category, Dalia was recognized as a leading voice on complex regulatory and compliance issues.
She is a member of the Governing Board of the Center for Audit Quality and head of the Board’s nominating and governance committee.
