04 Jan Flash: Trump Picks M&A Lawyer to Head SEC

The Trump team just announced that they are going to nominate Jay Clayton of Sullivan & Cromwell to be the next Chairman of the SEC. Clayton is a prominent M&A attorney and dealmaker. Very different from the former prosecutor with no real securities experience who many said he was considering.

Among other things Clayton represented Goldman Sachs when Warren Buffet wrote a $5 billion check to invest in the brokerage firm right after Lehman Brothers fell. He’s worked on multi-billion dollar IPOs and acquisitions. Clearly Trump is signalling an era promoting capital formation with less focus on enforcement.

Some are saying the Trump appointees are a little too Goldman-heavy, but these are the top folks, so why not? He also has two more SEC Commissioner slots to fill, it will be interesting to see how those go.