TheCorporateCounsel.net

On Monday, Chairman Cox announced Andrew “Buddy” Donohue as the next Director of Investment Management. Donohue, 55, is currently the Global General Counsel for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and is also Chairman of ML’s Global Risk Oversight Committee. Mr. Donohue graduated from Hofstra University and earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law. He will be sworn in by Chairman Cox on May 15, 2006 and will have many interesting issues to deal with, as we blogged about on Monday.

With this announcement, only three more top positions remain to be named: Market Reg Director, SEC Chief Accountant and PCAOB Chair.

More on the SEC’s Subpoena-Gate

Yesterday, the Commission issued a Policy Statement for Staff members to follow when seeking information from the press. In the Policy Statement, the Commission sets forth 13 guidelines/procedures for the SEC Staff to follow to ensure that “vigorous enforcement” of the securities laws is conducted “completely consistently” with the principles of the First Amendment. The guidelines are intended “to avoid the issuance of subpoenas to members of the media that might impair the news gathering and reporting functions.” Among other things, the Statement requires that the Director of Enforcement, in consultation with the SEC’s General Counsel and with notification of the Chairman, authorize any subpoenas to the media.

This Policy Statement will hopefully put to bed this issue, which began in late February 2006, when news reports appeared about the SEC serving subpoenas for records of columnists for MarketWatch and Dow Jones Newswires in an investigation about possible stock fraud involving Overstock.com and where Chairman Cox took the unusual step of halting the subpoenas.