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Wall Street Journal, SEC Pick Jay Clayton Is a 180 From Chairman Mary Jo White
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Washington Post, Trump to tap Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton to head SEC
Clayton is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, a well-known law firm, and has represented some of the biggest names on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs, and helped them weather regulatory scrutiny. He also has helped large companies raise money through an initial public offering, including Alibaba, a Chinese retail giant that held one of the largest IPOs in history. But, according to the biography on the Sullivan & Cromwell website, Clayton has not held any government positions and has never served as a prosecutor.
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Washington Post, Trump’s Transition: Who is Jay Clayton?
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New York Times, Donald Trump Nominates Wall Street Lawyer to Head S.E.C.
Yet Mr. Clayton’s nomination will be sure to fuel criticism that Goldman Sachs could wield too much influence in the Trump administration. Sullivan & Cromwell, where Mr. Clayton is a partner, has been Goldman’s go-to law firm for more than a century. Mr. Clayton advised Goldman Sachs on perhaps its most important deal, the $5 billion investment by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway amid the financial crisis. Mr. Clayton’s wife works as a private-wealth adviser at Goldman.