Yesterday, the SEC announced the appointment of J. Russell “Rusty” McGranahan as the agency’s General Counsel. The announcement notes:

Mr. McGranahan’s career spans 30 years at a number of top companies and firms. He was recently the General Counsel of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), setting the course for a number of key initiatives during the first 10 months of this Administration. Prior to GSA, Mr. McGranahan was the General Counsel of Focus Financial Partners, a wealth management firm. He was with Focus Financial for nine years, leading the legal function through an explosive period of growth, including its IPO in 2018 and going private transaction in 2023. Before Focus Financial, Mr. McGranahan spent nine years with BlackRock, serving as Managing Director, M&A Counsel, and Corporate Secretary.

Mr. McGranahan began his career at Skadden, Arps and at White & Case, and for three years was based in Eastern Europe where he worked on some of the first public offerings from the region.

Mr. McGranahan earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A., summa cum laude, in Economics and Politics from the Catholic University of America. Mr. McGranahan has also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Mr. McGranahan will join a storied group of individuals that have served as the SEC’s General Counsel. I was fortunate to have attended the SEC Historical Society’s “SEC Office of General Counsel” program back in November, which honored the legacy of the Society’s founder and the 26th Chairman of the SEC, Harvey L. Pitt, who was the youngest General Counsel in the agency’s history. The program featured SEC General Counsels who served from the early 1980s to present day, and it was a great exploration of fascinating SEC developments across those decades and the important role that the Office of General Counsel played as that history unfolded.

– Dave Lynn