Led by a new team of co-directors, the Enforcement Division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is poised to create new initiatives dedicated to efficiency, greater staff discretion and specialized areas of focus. This was co-director George Canellos’ message as he addressed a panel of SEC alumni and other practitioners sponsored by the Federal Bar Association’s Securities Law Section on June 17, 2013. While Canellos laid out some ambitious plans for the SEC, he stressed the limits of those plans and the challenges that the agency may face in implementing them. And he also tried to satisfy the attendees’ desires to hear some Division “inside baseball.”

1. THE NEW LINEUP -

Canellos first discussed how the recent internal changes have affected the Division. Canellos and Andrew Ceresney were appointed as co-directors of the Enforcement Division by new SEC Chair Mary Jo White on April 22, 2013, marking the first time the Division has had dual leadership. Canellos reported that their new dynamic is working “seamlessly.” Notably, the co-directors eschew strict divisions of labor and instead jointly handle policy and procedure issues and litigation matters.