Two top SEC lawyers who helped beef up the agency's enforcement division following the 2008 financial crisis are heading to the private sector. One of those leaving had headed enforcement for the SEC unit that oversees mutual funds.

Robert Kaplan, the co-chief of the enforcement division's Asset Management Unit, is stepping away from the SEC to become a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton. In that job he will consult with investment advisors on compliance and enforcement. His move will take effect June 5.

In his post as head of the SEC's Asset Management Office Kaplan policed investment advisors, mutual funds, hedge funds, and PE shops. In an interview with 401kWire, Kaplan confirmed that his co-chief, Bruce Karpati, will stay on as the sole director of the Asset Management Office, and that two deputy directors, who will report to Karpati, will be hired internally.

Also leaving the SEC to join a law firm is Thomas Sporkin, the head of the SEC's Office of Market Intelligence.

Sporkin will become a partner at financial-services focused BuckleySadler LLP where he will join the firm's criminal and civil enforcement practice. He will remain in Washington, DC and start on June 18, according to a firm press release.

In a interview with MFWire, Sporkin said that he was approached by BuckleySadler and that he couldn't pass by an opportunity to "help build a securities practice with a phenomenal leader, if not the number one leader in their field' of financial-services law.

The pair had reported to SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami. SEC officials have not announced their replacements.

Khuzami tapped Kaplan and Sporkin in 2010 to lead the two of the enforcement division's five new units, which were created after the agency's reputation was battered by its failure to detect Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Sporkin spent two decades at the SEC's enforcement division and helped create both the Office of Market Intelligence and the Whistleblower Office. He was also instrumental in striking a deal to embed FBI agents in his group to help with investigations. Sporkin is the son of former SEC Enforcement Director Stanley Sporkin.

Read more about these departures at Reuters and Businessweek/a>. 

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