NATION

Ira L. Sorkin, regional director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office, will return to private law practice Sept. 30 after two years as head of the most active of the SEC’s nine regional units.

Sorkin said he would become a partner in his former law firm of Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Lehrer, where he worked between 1976 and 1984. The firm handles criminal and civil litigation cases.

“The time has come to leave,” he said. “Private practice will give me more variety in the type of cases I handle, and it’s no secret that financially it’s better.”

Sorkin began with the SEC immediately after graduating from law school in 1968. He stayed with the agency until 1971, when he left to become an assistant U.S. district attorney. Sorkin took over the 190-person New York office in May, 1984, at which time he told SEC Chairman John S. R. Shad that he would remain for two years.

The New York office has been active in SEC enforcement actions against investment companies and advisers, handling more than 70% of all the commission cases and more than 50% of the cases against broker-dealers.

Recently, Sorkin’s office helped bring the largest insider trading suit ever--against Wall Street investment banker Dennis B. Levine.