Updated 3:41 p.m.
Two former federal agency general counsels have made the move to Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr's Washington office.
Mark Cahn and Dan Berkovitz, formerly general counsel with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, respectively, start Tuesday with Wilmer. Cahn joins the securities litigation and enforcement practice, and Berkovitz will practice in the futures and derivatives group.
Before joining the SEC as deputy general counsel for ligation and adjudication in 2009, Cahn was a partner at Wilmer. From 2011 to late 2012, he served as general counsel at the SEC. At the commission, Cahn advised on policy issues related to the Dodd-Frank Act and the American Jobs Act and helped establish the agency's whistleblower program.
At the CFTC, Berkovitz advised on the implementation of Dodd-Frank. Berkovitz joined the commission in 2009, having previously been a staff attorney for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He stepped down from the agency in March.
In an interview William McLucas, chairman of Wilmer’s securities department, said firms are seeking lawyers with CFTC experience amid the agency’s increasing enforcement activity.
“With Berkovitz he will help us expand our advice and counsel on the CFTC side and with more and more of the multiservice firms that is an area where you have to have an ability to advise clients,” McLucas said. “I think they're already quite active and the scope of their role under Dodd-Frank, the chair and commission is active.”
On the securities side, McLucas said Cahn’s experience at the SEC and as a former Wilmer partner will “add to the quality and depth of the practice overall.”
Wilmer co-managing partner Robert Novick said in a prepared statement that Cahn and Berkovitz "will contribute significantly to our ability to handle a wide range of critical issues facing the financial markets and its participants."
Cahn and Berkovitz were not immediately available for comment
Comments