New SEC Chief Now Must Pick a ‘Top Cop’

One of the first tasks facing Richard C. Breeden, sworn in Wednesday as 24th chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will be to name a new enforcement chief, and many expect him to draw from within SEC ranks.

Top contenders for the highly visible job are the SEC’s three assistant directors of enforcement--William McLucas, John Sturc and Joseph Goldstein--SEC and industry sources said.

Called the triumvirate, these men have rotated the directorship weekly since Gary Lynch stepped down, and they have won industry praise for their competence.

Chief SEC trial attorney Thomas Newkirk also is a strong candidate, said SEC and industry officials.

“All are experienced, all are tough-minded and proven in the heat of battle, and all would be not much change from the Lynch era,” said securities lawyer John Stoppleman.

Lynch resigned in July after three years as the SEC’s chief enforcement director to work at the New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.

The job of Wall Street’s “top cop” is much coveted in the federal government. Its high-profile cases of corruption and manipulation in the nation’s financial markets are often headline news.

While Lynch was in power, he spearheaded the investigation that helped federal prosecutors put powerful stock speculator Ivan F. Boesky behind bars, and a 98-count indictment was brought against junk bond mastermind Michael Milken of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

“Any lawyer who had the opportunity would love the job,” said Newkirk, 47, when asked if he was interested. He has four years of SEC experience and before that was deputy general counsel at the Energy Department.

McLucas, 39, a 12-year veteran of the SEC enforcement division, also confirmed that he would be interested in the position. Goldstein and Sturc did not return calls.

“These are very capable people inside,” whose depth of experience in major cases such as the Milken one Breeden may wish to tap, said Richard Phillips, a lawyer with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart.

But one securities lawyer said the new chairman may prefer fresh blood to ensure he has a director with a broad range of legal experience.

The only outsiders’ names to circulate are two lawyers well-known for their work before the SEC--Robert Romano of the New York firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Robert McCaw of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering.

Romano said he would not apply for the position and has not been asked to submit his name.

But a senior SEC official has mentioned Romano, the SEC’s chief trial attorney from 1980-83, as a possible candidate, an industry source said.

McCaw did not return several telephone calls.

Breeden also has SEC commissioner jobs to fill.