WASHINGTON (AP) – Wayne Carlin, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s northeast regional office in New York, said Friday he will leave the SEC in January to become a partner in the lawfirm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Carlin, 44, has headed the SEC’s New York office since October 2000, and has been involved in many high-profile cases, including the ImClone Systems insider-trading probe that led to charges against founder Samuel Waksal, Martha Stewart and her former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker.
Carlin’s departure comes at a critical time for the SEC and creates the third major opening at its regional offices.
Juan Marcelino resigned as head of the SEC’s Boston office this fall amid complaints about the office’s handling of a tip about suspicious trading at Putnam Investments, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos.
Mary Keefe, the head of the SEC’s Chicago office, stepped down this month to head compliance at a hedge-fund company.
SEC chairman William Donaldson said Carlin served with distinction, overseeing some of the SEC’s most significant enforcement matters.
Stephen Cutler, director of the SEC enforcement division, called him a “spectacular lawyer” who will be missed.
Under Carlin’s leadership, the SEC brought its first case alleging improper allocation of hot initial public offerings against Credit Suisse First Boston. He also was involved in early tests of the agency’s Regulation Fair Disclosure against Raytheon Co. and Motorola Inc.
Carlin also oversaw the SEC’s first case alleging an insurance firm crafted a policy to aid accounting fraud, which charged American International Group, and its case against Trump Hotels, its first to allege a company improperly used “pro-forma” accounting.
The New York office led the SEC’s investigation of research conflicts-of-interest at Lehman Brothers, charged Baron Capital for improper trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and brought a related failure-to-supervise case against the specialist firm of Spear, Leeds & Kellogg.
Carlin received an SEC award last year for leadership following the destruction of the agency’s office at 7 World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Carlin began his legal career as an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, and was later a partner at the law firm of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault.
He joined the SEC in 1993 and left five years later for a position as head of regulatory affairs at Lazard Freres & Co. He returned to the SEC in 1999 as an associate regional director.
