The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Mark Schonfeld will be leaving the agency at the end of September in order to return to private practice at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Schonfeld, the director of the SEC’s New York regional office, will join the firm’s New York office as a partner, where he will co-chair the firm's securities enforcement practice group and will also work closely with the firm’s crisis management and white collar defense and investigations groups.

During his twelve years at the SEC, Schonfeld was co-head of the enforcement program at the Northeast Regional Office in New York from 2001 to 2004 before assuming his current position as director in 2004. While at the SEC, he led the New York office in bringing many of its most important, high-profile enforcement matters over the last decade.