SEC hires new senior lawyer

The SEC has hired Richard A. Levine as associate general counsel for legal policy under general counsel David Becker. From the SEC's press release:

Mr. Levine will provide legal and policy advice to the Commission on a wide range of matters, with a particular emphasis on enforcement, corporate disclosure, and accounting. He will begin his new role immediately.

Since 1997, Mr. Levine has served as the SEC's Assistant General Counsel for Enforcement, playing a key role in advising the Commission on all aspects of its enforcement program.

Before becoming Assistant General Counsel, Mr. Levine held several positions of increasing responsibility in the SEC's Office of General Counsel, beginning in 1984 as a staff attorney in the Office's Appellate Group and then serving as Special Counsel and Senior Special Counsel in the Disclosure Policy and Accounting Branch of the Legal Policy Group.

Mr. Levine, 53, received the Chairman's Award for Excellence in 2000 for his work on the SEC's Selective Disclosure and Insider Trading rulemaking (Regulation FD and rules 10b5-1 and 10b5-2). He has received several other awards for his work at the SEC including the Distinguished Service Award, which is the Commission's highest honor. He received the Phillip A. Loomis, Jr. Award from the Federal Bar Association.

Before joining the SEC, Mr. Levine was a litigation associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City. He earned his JD in 1980 from Michigan Law School and his BA, summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany in 1977.