Two former high-ranking officers with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee are transferring into personal follow, bringing with them a deep breadth of monetary regulatory data.
Carolyn Welshhans, a 17-year veteran of the SEC who most not too long ago served as affiliate director of the Division of Enforcement, has landed at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
Welshhans, who started her new position on Monday, will probably be a accomplice on the agency’s Washington D.C. workplace and can deal with SEC enforcement, investigations and litigation. The hiring provides to Morgan Lewis’s roster of former authorities officers who’ve discovered recent houses in personal follow.
Gurbir S. Grewal, the SEC enforcement chief who additionally beforehand served as New Jersey legal professional common, will probably be heading over to Milbank, based on a supply acquainted with the matter. The supply stated Grewal is predicted to be a accomplice within the agency’s white-collar protection and SEC enforcement follow. It was not instantly clear when he can be start his new position, however the supply stated Grewal could be a part of Milbank both later this 12 months or early subsequent.
The SEC introduced Grewal’s pending Oct. 11 departure in a information launch final Wednesday. Whereas on the SEC, Grewal prioritized “restoring investor belief and confidence within the monetary markets” by stressing proactive enforcement initiatives and specializing in making a tradition of compliance, the SEC stated within the launch.
Grewal served as New Jersey legal professional common from 2018 to 2021, and earlier than that was the highest prosecutor in Bergen County, which is New Jersey’s most populous.
Welshhans, in the meantime, involves Morgan Lewis after serving in varied management roles with the SEC, together with appearing chief of its Crypto Property and Cyber Unit. She additionally served as assistant director within the Enforcement Division’s Cyber and Market Abuse models.
“Carolyn’s deep familiarity with the SEC and its enforcement priorities mixed along with her work on high-profile issues will significantly improve our SEC enforcement capabilities,” Troy Brown, the chief of Morgan Lewis’s world litigation follow, stated in an announcement.
Welshhans lauded her former group on the SEC and stated she is happy with her tenure within the authorities place, but in addition expressed pleasure at returning to personal follow.
“I at all times thought I would return to personal follow, and this simply felt like the correct time to me,” Welshhans stated in an interview Monday. “Morgan Lewis simply offers an unbelievable alternative to work with pracitioners on the high of their sport who’re additionally simply excellent folks.”
Her new place with Morgan Lewis, she stated, will present her a possibility to advise shoppers on find out how to adjust to federal securities legal guidelines and find out how to navigate SEC investigations and inquiries by monetary regulators and “put together for litigation, if needed.”
Welshhans stated her time on the SEC afforded her the chance to develop a broad base of information that may carry over into her new position. She envisions her consumer base being made up of public firms, startups, monetary companies and fin-tech firms.
Whereas vetting potential employers, Welshhans stated she was impressed by Morgan Lewis’s zeal for advocating for shoppers and he or she was interested in the agency’s offering full service to its shoppers throughout all phases of enterprise.
“I feel that’s simply an unbelievable synergy for a follow like securities enforcement and litigation,” she stated. “I selected very fastidiously and thought very a lot in regards to the tradition of the agency, the way in which that it practices and simply the top-notch, world method that they should their shoppers.”
Welshhans joins different former SEC officers at Morgan Lewis, together with Kelly Gibson, former appearing deputy director of enforcement; Fred Block, former supervisory trial counsel within the Enforcement Division; Christine Ayako Schleppegrell, former department chief on the Division of Funding Administration; and Erin Martin, former authorized department chief within the Division of Company Finance.
Grewal, in the meantime, will probably be becoming a member of a New York elite agency that noticed a 17.8% income bounce in 2023, together with a file 12 months of income per fairness accomplice, growing 18.6% to $5.114 million, The American Lawyer beforehand reported. Throughout Grewal’s tenure on the SEC, the Enforcement Division really helpful greater than 2,400 enforcement issues that resulted in additional than $20 billion in disgorgement, prejudgment curiosity and civil penalties. It additionally secured greater than $1 billion in awards to whistleblowers and the return of billions of {dollars} to harmed traders.
