[ by Howard Haykin ] The SEC Enforcement Division suffered a major loss of talent when it was announced that 2 of its senior officials in Enforcement, would be leaving for private practice.  Both individuals had been credited with helping implement a major overhaul of that division. Thomas Sporkin, head of the SEC's Office of Market Intelligence, is leaving for Buckley Sandler LLP, a financial services law firm.  It was founded by Andrew Sandler, who formerly was with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The other official to leave is Robert Kaplan, the co-head of Enforcement's Asset Management unit;  he'll be joining law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.  Mr. Kaplan will join a group of securities and white-collar enforcement lawyers that include former SEC associate director Paul Berger, and the former U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Mary Jo White. The pair were high level officers of the SEC, serving under enforcement Director Robert Khuzami, who's continues to reform that Division's operations following the beating the SEC took for failing to detect Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. More About the Departing Individuals. Mr. Sporkin, the son of former SEC Enforcement Director Stanly Sporkin, helped oversee the creation and implementation of the SEC's new tips, complaints and referrals database.  He also was instrumental in establishing a deal with the FBI to allow agents to be embedded with his group to help improve cooperation at the pre-investigation level.  Sporkin is a recent recipient of the SEC's Irving Pollack Award, that honors significant accomplishments by employees. Mr. Kaplan, meanwhile, led the specialized asset management unit along with co-director Bruce Karpati.  Under his leadership, the division has been developing initiatives used to help get out ahead of high-risk areas for hedge funds, private equity firms and mutual funds. Such past initiatives have included looking into the aberrational performance of hedge funds as well as the valuation of illiquid portfolios, false performance claims and preferential redemptions.    [Reuters, 5/31/12]