SEC Tenure: 1987-2002. Before rising through the SEC Enforcement ranks to become Associate Director, Bill Baker served as one of the first specialized enforcement chiefs in SEC history—as Assistant Director for Municipal Securities investigations, Bill played a leading role in the SEC’s efforts to reform that market bringing more than 100 enforcement actions charging municipal market participants. Bill left the SEC to work as a partner at Latham & Watkins, and became a go-to SEC defense lawyer for the next two decades.
Bill was notoriously recognized inside SEC headquarters as the individual defense lawyer who has personally signed the most Wells submissions in SEC history.