… But there’s actually specific academic research on the question of how the revolving door impacts S.E.C. enforcement actions and it concludes that S.E.C. lawyers who rotate out into the private sector are more aggressive in their enforcement efforts than those who don’t.
If you manage to unplug from the revolving door narrative for a second, you can see why this makes sense—if you spend your time as a government lawyer being extremely lackadaisical in your prosecutorial efforts that’s going to make you look like a bad lawyer who people don’t want to hire. If you want to cash in some day, you want to have the reputation of being someone who’s really smart and tough and effective and who understands how to make cases. That’s the kind of lawyer who the private sector wants to hire.
via The SEC’s Top Cop Is Cashing In as a Wall Street Lawyer, and You Should Feel OK About It — Slate
