SEC requires staff attorneys to prove bar membership

SEC staff attorneys have been required to show proof that they are active members in good standing with at least one state bar association. The directive was issued in September after the SEC's office of inspector general completed investigations of two staff attorneys who had let their bar memberships lapse. SEC attorneys are required to be active members of at least one state bar. The new policy was revealed this week in a semiannual report released by the inspector general’s office. One unnamed SEC attorney at the agency's headquarters was suspended from the practice of law in 2006 after failing to pay bar dues and maintain continuing education requirements, the report said. The lawyer continued to work as an SEC attorney. The inspector general’s office began its investigation of the attorney in August 2009 after receiving a tip. In case opened last August, the inspector general found that a staff attorney in a regional office had allowed his bar memberships to lapse on several occasions, and has not been an active member of a bar association since 2008. The regional attorney had nevertheless signed and filed a complaint on behalf of the commission in federal court and had certified on several applications for promotions that he was an active member of a bar, the report said. In both cases, the inspector general recommended that the lawyers be disciplined and possibly terminated. As of the end of September, the SEC had not yet proposed disciplinary action against the individuals, the report said. An SEC spokesman did not have an immediate comment today.