Law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell announced that former SEC Enforcement Director, Linda Chatman Thomsen, and Raul Yanes, former assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary, are rejoining the firm as partners. Both Thomsen and Yanes will be based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

Thomsen returns to Davis Polk after serving for 14 years in various positions within the SEC. She joined the SEC staff in 1995 as assistant chief litigation counsel. In 1997, she was named assistant director of the Enforcement Division. She became an associate director in 2000 and deputy director in 2002, and she was named director of the Enforcement Division in 2005, a position she held until earlier this year. Prior to joining the SEC, Thomsen was a litigator at Davis Polk and served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Yanes joined Davis Polk as a litigation associate in 1993 and was elected partner in 1999. In 2003, he left the firm to become associate counsel to the President. In 2005, he became senior counsel to the Attorney General at the Justice Department and later served as general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget. In 2006, President Bush named Yanes assistant to the President and staff secretary.