Two Columbia Law School Alums Take Leadership Roles at the SEC

  1. News From Columbia Law
  2. Story Archive
  3. Two Columbia Law School Alums Take Leadership Roles at the SEC
Two Columbia Law School Alums Take Leadership Roles at the SEC

 

Media contact: Sonia von Gutfeld 212-854-1453 [email protected]
Public Affairs Office 212-854-2650 [email protected]

New York, June 4, 2009 — Columbia Law School graduate George Canellos ’89, a longtime prosecutor and law firm partner, was appointed regional director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York Regional Office. He will join fellow Law School alumnus David M. Becker ’73, who earlier this year became general counsel and senior policy director at the SEC.

Canellos, a partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s litigation group, will oversee the enforcement and examination operations in the SEC’s New York office as it tightens oversight of Wall Street and seeks to restore investor confidence. He is expected to begin his new position in July, according to the SEC.

From 1994 to 2002, Canellos worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he led the major crimes unit and served as senior trial counsel of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1986 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1989.

Becker is the SEC’s chief legal officer and the senior staff person responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of SEC policies. He had previously served as SEC general counsel from January 2000 to May 2002 after joining the SEC staff as deputy general counsel in 1998. Before returning to the SEC this past February he was a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Becker earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia College in 1968 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1973.
###
 
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, criminal, and environmental law.