Robert Khuzami, former Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, has joined law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office. The firm announced today that Khuzami has joined its global Government, Regulatory and Internal Investigations Practice Group. 

Khuzami left the SEC in January 2013 after nearly four years of leadership during the challenging "post-Madoff" period in which he, in the words of Judge Jed Rakoff, "restored a sense of pride and purpose to the SEC enforcement division." As I have discussed in detail through the years, Khuzami led the Enforcement Division through a series of major structural changes that included the introduction of specialized enforcement units, establishing a new Office of Market Intelligence, and establishing a cooperation program. Prior to joining the SEC, Khuzami worked at Deutsche Bank in New York from 2002-2009, initially as Global Head of Litigation and Regulatory Investigations and from 2004 onwards as General Counsel for the Americas. He also previously served as an AUSA in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York from 1991 to 2002, including three years as chief of its Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. 

Not surprisingly, Khuzami's services were in strong demand in the private sector. DealBook reports that after announcing his planned departure from the SEC in January, Khuzami received more than a dozen serious inquiries from firms trying to hire him, including most of the top law firms in the SEC enforcement defense area and several companies.

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