Don’t expect SEC enforcement to just disappear under new chairman Paul Atkins, warn 3 former general counsels

Paul Atkins, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Credit: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

• SEC Chairman Paul Atkins was sworn in last week and will preside over a newly constituted SEC after a flood of departures due to DOGE. The rule-making agenda is likely to see significant shifts, experts said, but Atkins is no shrinking violet when it comes to enforcement actions. 

Three out of the last four general counsels of the Securities & Exchange Commission are predicting that enforcement priorities will shift, but not disappear with newly sworn-in Chairman Paul Atkins at the helm of the agency.