On 1/3/11, J. Bradley Bennett became the new Chief of FINRA's Enforcement Division, succeeding Susan Merrill, who had been in that position for 3 years.  The same individual who, for the past 2 decades, has defended RRs, B/D's and corporate heads who had been accused of everything from insider trading to accounting fraud. 

    FINRA Profile of J. Bradley Bennett, EVP-Enforcement.   J. Bradley Bennett, EVP of Enforcement, joined FINRA in January 2011, and is responsible for overseeing FINRA's Department of Enforcement. In this capacity, Mr. Bennett directs investigating and bringing all formal FINRA disciplinary actions against firms and their associated persons for violations of FINRA rules and federal securities laws.

Previously, Mr. Bennett was a partner at the law firm Baker Botts in Washington, DC, where he specialized in financial and securities law violations. Before joining Baker Botts in 2001, he was an attorney at Miller, Cassidy, Larocca & Lewin.

Mr. Bennett started his career at the Securities and Exchange Commission as a senior attorney in the Division of Enforcement, with responsibility for cases covering all facets of securities law, including accounting, broker-dealer regulation, tender offers and insider trading.

Mr. Bennett serves as an adjunct professor of securities regulation at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law. He received his undergraduate degree from St. Lawrence University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

    FINRA Enforcement Chief Bennett.   Mr. Bennett says Wall Street can expect his 300-person enforcement team to be tough but fair.  He plans to aim at dubious private real estate deals sold to small investors and monitor compliance with money laundering prohibitions. With Goldman Sachs selling $1.5 billion of Facebook shares to its wealthy clients, Mr. Bennett also wants to keep tabs on firms that offer shares in private technology companies.

Mr. Bennett, a father of two teenage daughters who lives in suburban Virginia, began his legal career at the SEC in the late 1980s, after graduating magna cum laude from the law school at Georgetown. He spent 4 years at the commission’s enforcement division, where he prosecuted insider trading and accounting fraud.  An imposing presence at 6' 5", Mr. Bennett said he was eager to take on any case that ended up in court. 

Mr. Bennett’s experience as a regulator came in handy when he joined Baker Botts in 2001, after a nine-year stint at Miller, Cassidy, Larocca & Lewin. As the co-chairman of the white-collar and corporate investigations group at Baker Botts, Mr. Bennett often defended his clients on matters before the Justice Department and the S.E.C.

In one S.E.C. insider trading investigation, he defended Congressional staff members suspected of leaking confidential information about potential legislation to lobbyists and companies. Mr. Bennett declined to name the aides because the investigation closed without becoming public. He also helped lead an internal investigation into accounting fraud at Freddie Mac, the housing finance giant.

When the investment adviser Paul W. Eggers, the Treasury Department’s general counsel during the Nixon administration, was charged with selling bogus investments, he turned to Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett took the case, but Mr. Eggers was convicted of mail and wire fraud.

Mr. Bennett was also Finra’s preferred outside lawyer. Since 2003, he has dedicated a third of his practice to Finra. He notably represented the regulator during an S.E.C. investigation into problems at the American Stock Exchange, an affiliated company.

“He’s a team player, and the Finra staff will react well to him,” said Barry Goldsmith, a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, who has known Mr. Bennett from their days together at the S.E.C. “I think Brad will bring a lot of energy to the job.”

Mr. Bennett — an avid game hunter who had ducks mounted in his office at Baker Botts — warns that he will not go easy on the industry as he switches from defending financial firms to prosecuting them. In fact, he says he believes his experience with Wall Street will give him a unique perspective.

At Finra, Mr. Bennett will collect a paycheck close to that of other executives at the regulator, who typically earn around $700,000. His predecessor earned $1.28 million in 2009, according to filings.

“If anyone thinks I’ll be an advocate for soft-touch enforcement, they are going to be disappointed,” Mr. Bennett said. “If someone stepped over the line, they’re not going to get any sympathy from me.”

[NYT Dealbook, 1/18;  FINRA Website]