David Saperstein

David Saperstein (June 14, 1901 – December 28, 1990) was an American lawyer and government regulator associated with the creation and early administration of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He served as associate counsel to the Pecora Commission and later directed the SEC's Division of Trading and Exchange under Chairman Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.. Saperstein was also associated with the drafting and early administration of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Early life and education Saperstein was born on June 14, 1901, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1921 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia Law School in 1923. Lovell became known for his health column in the Los Angeles Times and for commissioning Richard Neutra's Lovell Health House in Los Angeles.

In the early 1930s, Saperstein accompanied Lovell on a trip to the Soviet Union.

Pecora Commission During the Senate investigation of stock-exchange practices, Saperstein served as associate counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency under chief counsel Ferdinand Pecora.

The "Saperstein Interpretation" In 1937, the SEC issued an interpretation concerning specialists on securities exchanges that later became known as the "Saperstein Interpretation". A later SEC notice described the interpretation as a letter by Saperstein, then director of the Commission's Trading and Exchange Division, to the presidents of exchanges with specialist systems. In 2006, the Commission revisited the trade-by-trade application of the interpretation in connection with New York Stock Exchange rule changes, stating that automation, competition, and changes in market structure had altered the environment in which specialists operated. He remained a corporate lawyer until retiring in 1982.