Lawrence A. West, associate director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, will depart the regulator to become a partner at the Washington office of Latham & Watkins.
West, 54, joined the commission in 1994 as a staff attorney in the Division of Enforcement. He rose to the post of branch chief three years later and was named assistant director in 1999.
During his tenure, he oversaw a wide variety of cases, including actions at WorldCom, Enron and Parmalat.
He also spearheaded several of the commission's investigations into illegal practices at broker-dealers, including the mutual fund fee breakpoints and yield-burning cases.
Most recently, he has supervised the SEC's ongoing risk-based investigations of pension accounting at public companies and practices in the auction rate securities market.
A replacement has not been named.
