SEC names CFTC commissioner Dan Berkovitz as general counsel 

Dan Berkovitz (pictured), who currently serves on the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as general counsel effective November 1. Berkovitz succeeds John Coates who will leave the agency in October and return to teaching at Harvard University.  

Berkovitz has served as a commissioner of the CFTC since September 2018 after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Prior to his appointment, Berkovitz was a partner and co-chair of the futures and derivatives practice at the law firm of WilmerHale. He also was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School and vice-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Derivatives and Futures Law. He previously served as the CFTC’s General Counsel from 2009 to 2013. Earlier in his career, Berkovitz was a senior staff lawyer for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.