Top SEC aide leaving agency, played key role in Reg BI

The SEC’s chief of staff plans to leave the agency in early August for private law practice.

Lucas Moskowitz, who has spent two years as the top aide to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, will become a partner at the WilmerHale law firm in Washington. Moskowitz’s job at the SEC has put him at the center of much of the agency’s business, including policy making, enforcement actions and personnel decisions. He’s also been a key person in the regulator’s dealings with Congress and other agencies.

“He is one of those people who makes the hard things look easy,” Clayton said in an interview. “All of a sudden you look up and the problem’s solved.”

Clayton said Moskowitz played an integral role shepherding the SEC’s recent rules on broker conduct and derivatives.

The headquarters building of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Dec. 22, 2018. Parts of the U.S. government shut down on Saturday for the third time this year after a bipartisan spending deal collapsed over President Donald Trump's demands for more money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg
The headquarters building of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Dec. 22, 2018. Parts of the U.S. government shut down on Saturday for the third time this year after a bipartisan spending deal collapsed over President Donald Trump's demands for more money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg

Moskowitz, 39, has spent nearly a decade working in government, including as a staff member for the House Financial Services Committee and chief investigative counsel for the Senate Banking Committee. At the SEC, he also has served as an enforcement lawyer and as a counsel to Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher.

When he starts at WilmerHale in September, Moskowitz will be reunited with Gallagher, who is deputy chairman of the firm’s securities practice.

Clayton is promoting Sean Memon, his deputy chief of staff, to replace Moskowitz, the SEC said. Memon, 41, worked with Clayton at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm before coming to the SEC in 2017.

Bryan Wood, currently the director of the agency’s legislative and intergovernmental affairs office, will become the deputy chief.

Bloomberg News
Regulatory actions and programs Regulation Best Interest Jay Clayton SEC
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