Elaine Darroch helped the Securities and Exchange Commission track and provide regulatory guidance to broker-dealers and other investment professionals who developed electronic networks for trading. In the 1990s, the number of broker-dealers that developed trading through the Internet or other private networks began to skyrocket. A team of lawyers that included Ms. Darroch developed Rule 17a-23. Their action helped the Commission study the liquidity, transparency and effects of these new networks. Later, the team provided guidance to senior officials writing the first exemption letter to Rule 17a-23. Rule 17a-23 was the forerunner of the current rules governing electronic markets. Ms. Darroch also provided guidance to senior officials when self-regulatory organizations such as the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA) proposed new disciplinary rules for their organization. She wrote the first draft of the Principles of Effective Market Oversight for the Council of Securities Regulators of the Americas as part of the SEC's program to provide leadership to regulators in other countries. The draft was developed and approved by 13 COSRA members in 1995.

Ms. Darroch graduated summa cum laude from American University's Washington College of Law. During her summer break, she furthered her study in Singapore, learning about foreign investments in Southeast Asian nations and interning with White & Case in Singapore. She also helped investment management firms with securities issues while working at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart in Washington, D.C. Ms. Darroch was articles editor for the American University Law Review and won an award for her article, "Mertens v. Hewitt Associates: the Supreme Court's Dismantling of Civil Enforcement under ERISA," which was published in the Detroit College of Law. Her article was later cited in Gerbec v. United States, 154 F.3d 1015 (6th Cir. 1999). Ms. Darroch first became interested in a legal career while working as a journalist with the Tampa Tribune after she covered a famous surrogate parenting case, Baby M.