New Jersey Attorney General Named SEC’s Top Cop
The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal, as director of the division of enforcement, effective July 26, 2021.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal, as director of the division of enforcement, effective July 26, 2021.
“[Grewal] has had a distinguished career as New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer and as a prosecutor at both the local and federal levels. He has the ideal combination of experience, values, and leadership ability to helm the enforcement division at this critical time,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “I look forward to working closely with him to protect investors and root out wrongdoing in our markets.”
As attorney general, a position he has held since January 2018, Grewal heads the department of law and public safety, which employs more than 3,700 uniformed officers, 750 lawyers, and thousands of additional public servants, including investigators, regulators, and administrative staff.
During his tenure, New Jersey was one of the first states to propose a fiduciary regulation after the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule was vacated by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2018. At the time, Grewal said, “If the federal government won’t act to protect investors, then we will.”
Before becoming attorney general, he served as Bergen County prosecutor, the chief law enforcement office of New Jersey’s most populous county. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office for the district of New Jersey, where he served as chief of the economic crimes unit and oversaw the investigation and prosecution of all major white collar and cybercrimes.
He also previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the United States attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York, where he was assigned to the business and securities fraud unit.
Grewal holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and obtained his law degree from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law.
