One unintended consequence of the rich salaries at the SEC is that many extremely qualified staff attorneys have limited chances to advance in the Enforcement Division. Years ago, when I started work as a staff attorney, there were regular opportunities for advancement. An Enforcement staff attorney who worked hard and was effective had a reasonable chance of getting promoted to supervisor after working three to five years in the Division. Today, it is drastically different: a number of highly capable Enforcement staff attorneys are stuck doing the same basic work regardless of the their skill sets and capabilities. Some have toiled for many years in the same roles, yet still have little chance of being promoted any time soon. Supervisory vacancies are extremely rare because many first line supervisors — handcuffed by the high pay and good benefits — have no plans to retire or leave the agency.
Adding to that problem, too many assistant directors are mediocre at best. Having grown complacent, a number of assistant directors work just forty hours a week without much diligence or energy, adding little of value to their subordinates’ work. Some assistant directors are simply not competent.
Don’t get me wrong, some excellent assistant directors work in the Enforcement Division. I know because I worked for a few truly amazing ones. These individuals should be given life tenure. There are also assistant directors who are very good managers — conscientious, thoughtful, and well-regarded.
Senior management should do something to address the obvious lack of promotion opportunities and work to improve the caliber of its assistant directors. If they don’t, some of the best and brightest attorneys will find work elsewhere and the Division (and the Commission and the investing public) will be worse off because of it. With the position of assistant director so critically important to the success of the Enforcement Division, senior management should do what it can to ensure that its assistant directors are of the highest caliber. Ones that are not should be reassigned to less important positions to make room for those that are.
The SEC in Action 