SEC Enforcement Lawyers Say Morale Is Up

[Robbien]

Source: Legal Times

Enforcement lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission have recently been dressed down by Congress, blamed for major investment bank failures and publicly criticized for missing the alleged frauds of financiers Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford.

And still, they're in the best mood they've been in for years.

"There's a sense of the lifting of spirits," says Elisse Walter, one of the SEC's two Democratic commissioners.

Since being sworn in as chairman Jan. 27, Mary Schapiro has rolled back a number of rules created by her predecessor, Christopher Cox, that critics say hindered the enforcement process. She's also tapped a new enforcement chief, Robert Khuzami, a veteran federal prosecutor and, most recently, general counsel for the Americas at Deutsche Bank. Most importantly, say current and former Enforcement Division lawyers, Schapiro has reinvigorated the staff's morale by urging them to aggressively pursue investigations.

Under Cox, "the guiding principle was slow it down, shut it down, find a way to bog it down," says a lawyer in the division, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he still works there and did not have permission to speak to the media. "We are now being given the tools, the ability, and the discretion to use our good judgment."



Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202428712112

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Now that's good news.

[Why Syzygy]

1. Sounds like Bush's residency:

slow it down, shut it down, find a way to bog it down

[wackywaggin]

2. Offer bounties to SEC investigators

See the results that start pouring in and the wealthy con-artists going to prison.

[Warpy]

3. Cox and Linda Thomsen both need to be hauled in front of Congress

for some really close questioning about where their orders were coming from.

What they did to that agency is criminal. It wasn't incompetence, it was collusion.

[Best_man23]

5. Thomsen: "well I'm sorry you feel that way"

Cox and his SEC destroyed TRILLIONS in shareholder wealth by their incompetence.

I guess I need to start learning how to trade options if I"m going to make any money in this market.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Cox is now a partner in Latham and Watkins.

5th largest law firm in the world, despite all the recent layoffs.
Reknown Bushie law firm.

and Michael chertoff is also partner.

[grannie4peace]

4. they need to do some work for us then!