Biography
Attorney Rachael T. Shaw has focused her professional career on Investment Management and Federal and State Securities law. Professor Shaw provides law students with the unique opportunity to gain practical experience with actual clients in the practice area of securities law as an Adjunct Professor in the Securities Arbitration Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of law. Professor Shaw assists in all stages of the recovery of lost or stolen funds for small investors alongside law students. As an Adjunct Professor in the Securities Clinic, Professor Shaw also coaches students in the annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon at St. John’s University School of Law. The triathlon challenges students to negotiate, mediate, and arbitrate in a single competition, thus giving students the opportunity to hone their advocacy skills in a realistic securities dispute experience.
Professor Shaw began her career as an associate in the Investment Management Group at Reed Smith LLP. In this capacity, Professor Shaw worked closely with Federated Hermes, Inc., as well as other large investment managers and financial institutions, counseling the client on a wide variety of investment management issues including compliance requirements, regulatory filings, and disclosure materials. Professor Shaw regularly advised mutual fund distributors in drafting and negotiating fund sales agreements with third-party intermediaries. Professor Shaw was a Junior Attorney on a transaction involving one of the nation’s largest investment manager’s acquiring a N.Y.-based investment manager for $57 million dollars. This transaction was listed in the New York Law Journal.
Following her time at Reed Smith, Professor Shaw worked as a judicial law clerk for The Honorable Jacqueline O. Shogan in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania where she assisted the Superior Court Judge in researching and drafting memoranda of law and opinions.
After her clerkship, Professor Shaw returned to the practice of law as a member of the Business and Finance/Investment Management Group at Tucker Arensberg, P.C. In this group Professor Shaw provided counsel on collective funds, securities matters, and regulatory and compliance issues. She drafted and negotiated various types of credit accommodations including secured and unsecured loans, and term and revolving credit facilities. She also documented and reviewed multi-bank credit facilities and represented corporate clients in a wide variety of maters including mergers and acquisitions, financing, and general contracts.
Professor Shaw received her J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from the Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, PA as well as her B.S.B.A. degree from Duquesne University as part of their 3/3 Law Early Admission Program. Professor Shaw is admitted to Practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.