SEC Enforcement Lawyer Hiring in 2026

On 7 April 2026 the Securities and Exchange Commission published enforcement results for the fiscal year that ended on 30 September 2025. The Commission filed 456 enforcement actions, including 303 standalone actions and 69 follow-on administrative proceedings that seek to bar or suspend a person on the basis of a criminal conviction, a civil injunction, or another order. The release states that those results omit 1,095 matters in which potentially violative conduct was investigated and then closed. A defense lawyer worked on a share of those closed files. The filing count is not the demand count.

Of the standalone actions filed in fiscal 2025, approximately two-thirds charged one or more individuals, which the Commission described as a 27 percent year-over-year increase. Nearly nine out of every ten standalone actions filed under Acting Chairman Uyeda and Chairman Atkins involved individual charges. The Commission obtained orders barring 119 individuals from serving as officers and directors of public companies. A requisition written for a sweep associate, someone who has lived inside a books-and-records settlement, does not match that mix. The match is a lawyer who has taken testimony, written a Wells submission, and negotiated a bar.

The same release reports orders for monetary relief totaling $17.9 billion: $10.8 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $7.2 billion in civil penalties. The addendum attributes $14.9 billion of that total to SEC v. Stanford International Bank Ltd., filed in 2009: $9 billion in disgorgement and $5.9 billion in penalties. After the press release excludes Stanford and amounts deemed satisfied by a parallel non-SEC order, the remainder is $1.4 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $1.3 billion in civil penalties. The addendum's Stanford-only cut is different: $1.3 billion in penalties and $1.7 billion in disgorgement, $3 billion, or $2.7 billion after certain offsets. The reconciliation table, and who hires against it, is on the SEC enforcement lawyer recruiter page. During fiscal 2025 the Commission also returned approximately $262 million to harmed investors, awarded approximately $60 million to 48 whistleblowers, and received a record 53,753 tips, complaints, and referrals, nearly 19 percent more than the prior fiscal year.

FINRA filed 625 new disciplinary actions in calendar 2025, after 730 in 2024, 610 in 2023, 743 in 2022, and 782 in 2021. Fines and disgorgement ordered were $99.6 million in 2025 and $75.6 million in 2024. Individual bars were 187 in 2025, against 182 in 2024. Individual suspensions were 235 in 2025, against 354 in 2024. The action count fell from 2024. The fine total rose. A search that treats "fewer FINRA cases" as "less work" is reading one column.

Investors sent FINRA 24,899 complaints in 2025, up from 11,908 in 2024. Market-abuse referrals to the SEC and other authorities were 1,759 in 2025, up from 1,369 in 2024. Complaints and referrals are the front of the next file, the same way the SEC's 53,753 tips are the front of the next Commission investigation. A deputy general counsel at a broker-dealer is hired against both series. The practice page sets out the six categories of instruction, including that broker-dealer seat. White-collar matters that are primarily criminal sit on the investigations bench note, not here.

Sartori & Partners has run 11 securities-enforcement searches from January 2023 through September 2026. 7 were law-firm seats and 4 were in-house. 9 of the 11 were instructed from New York or Washington. The median from brief to accepted offer on those 11 searches was 15 weeks. The firm's median from brief to accepted offer on general counsel and chief legal officer searches is 11 weeks. Enforcement searches on this book have run longer than that general-counsel median. Budget the longer clock. The firm has completed 400+ placements since 2017 (230+ in-house), including 52 general counsel and chief legal officer searches. An enforcement counsel search is a narrower book than those general-counsel searches, and the 15-week median is the one that applies here.

In 2025 a NASDAQ-listed broker-dealer in New York filled a deputy general counsel for enforcement seat in 14 weeks. The seat owned SEC and FINRA response. It was one of the four in-house searches. A retained general counsel, chief legal officer, or chief compliance officer search carries a 12-month replacement guarantee. Other in-house searches, including a deputy general counsel for enforcement, carry six months. The fee on a retained search is 25–30% of first-year total compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid as a retainer and kept if the client cancels.

New York and Washington hold most of this book. The market pages are securities in New York and securities in Washington. A useful brief names the forum, the charging theory, whether individuals are already in the caption, and whether a criminal authority is in the room. Disclosure work that is not an investigation belongs on securities regulation. Offerings belong on IPOs and public offerings.