Roberta S. Karmel has been at the center of U.S. securities regulation throughout her distinguished career as a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner, a practitioner, an attorney in the enforcement division of the SEC New York Regional Office, a public director of the New York Stock Exchange, and a prominent academic who has taught in the U.S. and abroad. In PLI's new book, Life at the Center: Reflections on Fifty Years of Securities Regulation, Professor Karmel addresses the key regulatory issues confronting the SEC over the past fifty years. The book is a compilation, with current commentary, of 190 New York Law Journal columns she wrote between 1982 and 2014, and excerpts from law review articles on related topics. She has written a current introduction for each chapter and provided context for the choice of each law review article excerpt. Life at the Center is an invaluable guide to understanding the issues faced by the SEC, the choices available to it, and the actions taken, as well as its relationships with other regulatory agencies. It brings the unique perspective of a distinguished scholar, author, and participant in SEC regulatory issues. According to Professor Karmel, many of the securities regulation controversies discussed in Life at the Center have not been resolved, or, if resolved temporarily, have resurfaced in a new form. In the introductory first chapter, Professor Karmel, the first female Commissioner of the SEC, discusses her career and her early writings at the SEC. She then provides an overview of the SEC s jurisdiction and programs, increased enforcement authority, pre-emption and regulatory competition. The following chapters each focus on a specific regulatory subject: Corporate Governance Regulation of Financial Institutions Corporation Finance Policies International Securities Regulation Market Structure and Regulation Insider Trading, Short-Swing Profits and Tender Offers Gatekeepers In addition, Professor Karmel includes a chapter compiling her commentary on Supreme Court cases. Drawing on her wealth of experience and insightful observations, Professor Karmel, in the final chapter of Life at the Center, points to the future and provides ten principles on how to improve financial regulation in the United States. Life at the Center: Reflections on Fifty Years of Securities Regulation is an invaluable commentary on ongoing securities regulation in the United States."