Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump's SEC Chair Pick, Jay Clayton
Clayton is a partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.
— -- President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Jay Clayton to be the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In this role, Clayton will be responsible for overseeing Wall Street and ensuring that investors are protected from unfair practices. He is a partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and has worked with Wall Street firms and other corporations to navigate federal regulations. This will be his first position in government and his first as a prosecutor.
Here is everything you need to know about Clayton:
Name: Walter “Jay” Clayton
Education: He has received a number of degrees, including a B.A. in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, a bachelor's in economics from the University of Cambridge in 1990 and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1993.
What he does:
His Sullivan & Cromwell biography reads that his expertise includes “public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions, capital markets offerings [and] regulatory and enforcement proceedings” and that he “advises several high-net-worth families regarding their public and private investments.”
His clients included Barclays Capital during the acquisition of Lehman Brothers and Chinese retail giant Alibaba in helping it raise money through public offerings. He has also represented Goldman Sachs in major acquisitions and investments.
His relationship with Trump:
Clayton met with Trump late last month to discuss U.S. regulatory policy.
“Jay Clayton is a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law, and he will ensure our financial institutions can thrive and create jobs while playing by the rules at the same time,” Trump said in a press release announcing Clayton’s selection.
Trump and Clayton said they will push for deregulation of Wall Street and large corporations.
“If confirmed, we are going to work together with key stakeholders in the financial system to make sure we provide investors and our companies with the confidence to invest together in America,” Clayton said in the press release. “We will carefully monitor our financial sector as we set policy that encourages American companies to do what they do best: create jobs.”
Policies he’s interested in:
Clayton has written a number of articles on law, and he also has an interest in cybersecurity. In 2015 he argued in an article he wrote with nine other people for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania that the U.S. must take more serious steps to protect itself from cybersecurity threats.
“Cyber risk is now a systemic threat to national security, economic sustainability, safety, public confidence and to the freedoms that constitute our way of life,” reads the article.
Clayton and his co-authors recommended implementing a “9-11-type Cyber Threat Commission” to provide more intel on potential cybersecurity threats.
What you might not know about him:
In his position as a partner at a major law firm, Clayton worked with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in the purchase and later the sale of the franchise.
Apart from practicing law, Clayton is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he has taught a class named M&A Through the Business Cycle.
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