The D.C. 4-Year Itch Is In Full Flight.

[ by Howard Haykin ]

The SEC announced Wednesday that 2 high-level officials will be leaving tthe Commission.  General Counsel Mark Cahn will leave at year-end;  Director of the Trading & Markets Division, Robert Cook will stay for a transitional period - to help ensure continuity in the Division's functions - and after that he will leave the SEC.  

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Mark Cahn has been with the SEC ...  for nearly 4 years.  He has served as General Counsel since February 2011, and immediately prior to that he served 2 years as SEC Deputy General Counsel.  

As SEC’s chief legal officer during a period of unprecedented enforcement and regulatory activity, Mr. Cahn was deeply involved in developing the Commission’s rules to govern the Whistleblower Program, and has provided advice on every rulemaking release that came before the Commission - that includes rules proposed and adopted pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Reform Act.

His 4 years with the SEC also coincided with a period of significant appellate activity.  This included the successful defense of SEC enforcement actions in the Courts of Appeals and involvement as amicus in Supreme Court cases addressing a variety of issues, including mutual fund advisory fees, the statute of limitations in securities litigation, and pleading and proof requirements in securities fraud actions.

Prior to joining the SEC in 2009 ...  Mr. Cahn was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.  He began his legal career as law clerk to Judge Herbert Stern of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and to Judge John Gibbons, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  He graduated from Tufts and Yale Law in 1983 and 1986, respectively.

For further details, go to:   [ SEC PR 12-254, 12/5/12 ].

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Robert Cook has been with the SEC ...  since January 2010. In the past 3 years, he has led  the Division’s broad regulatory policy program that includes oversight of securities exchanges and markets, broker-dealers, clearing agencies, and FINRA.  

Mr. Cook, 47,  has overseen the implementation of significant rulemaking and other  responsibilities assigned to the Division under Dodd-Frank and the JOBS Act.   Among other things, he oversaw several significant market structure initiatives, including:

• adoption of enhanced risk controls for traders with access to the securities markets;
• large trader registration and reporting rules;  and,
• consolidated audit trail rules.

He also directed:

• the staff’s ongoing review of equity market structure;
• the staff's analysis of the “Flash Crash” of 5.6.10; 
• work on various regulatory responses - e.g.,  single-stock circuit breakers, more transparent clearly erroneous trade break rules, updated market-wide circuit breakers, and the limit-up/limit-down volatility moderation mechanism.

Mr. Cook supervised more than 30 other major rulemaking initiatives and studies authorized or mandated by Dodd-Frank or the JOBS Act, including development of a new regulatory regime for security-based swaps. He further oversaw various projects related to the Chairman’s work on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Mr. Cook helped shape and improve the Division’s organization and operations, significantly increasing the the Division staff by about 250 employees.  The Division also implemented enhanced procedures for reviewing the more than 2,000 proposed rule changes and other filings received annually submitted by SROs..

Prior to arriving at the SEC ...  Mr. Cook was a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.  He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and an A.B. from Harvard College.

For further details, go to:   [ SEC PR 12-253, 12/5/12 ].