Credit Suisse Hires Former SEC Official
Credit Suisse First Boston, facing a federal probe into its handling of initial public offerings, said it hired Gary Lynch, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s former top enforcement official, as general counsel.
A partner at New York-based Davis Polk & Wardwell for 12 years, Lynch, 51, will take the post Oct. 1, becoming the second attorney named to a senior job since John Mack took over CSFB last month. Mack hired mergers lawyer Stephen R. Volk as vice chairman and a member of the executive board four days after taking the reins from Allen Wheat.
Lynch is joining CSFB as federal authorities investigate whether the firm and other major Wall Street brokerages broke laws by attaching conditions to sales of hot new stock offerings in 1999 and 2000.
“The people at Credit Suisse are saying ‘We don’t want problems anymore,’ ” said Stanley Sporkin, a partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges and the SEC enforcement director who hired Lynch. “It’s important to have someone at the firm who knows the enforcement agenda and what they can and can’t do. It’s a clean broom.”
As head of SEC enforcement from 1985 to 1989, Lynch oversaw cases against Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert. His presence may pave the way for a settlement on the IPO investigations and free up Mack to focus on cutting costs and reviving profit growth, some experts said.
