The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Michele Wein Layne has been named Regional Director of the Los Angeles Regional Office and will begin her new role immediately.

Ms. Layne has been an Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the L.A. office since 2005. She began her SEC career 17 years ago as a staff attorney in the Enforcement Division and has worked her way up the ranks into the office’s most senior position. Ms. Layne has been serving as the Co-Acting Regional Director since the departure of prior office director Rosalind Tyson earlier this year.

During her tenure at the SEC, Ms. Layne has worked on many significant enforcement cases involving a wide variety of securities law violations. Among the cases in which she has played a leadership role was the enforcement action against Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo that resulted in the largest SEC penalty ever paid by a public company’s senior executive, and the CSK Auto matter that marked the SEC’s first-ever Sarbanes-Oxley Act “clawback” case against an individual who was required to return bonuses and stock profits while not personally charged for the company’s misconduct.

“Michele has devoted her professional life to the high calling of protecting the nation’s investors and its financial markets,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “The leadership, judgment, and deep substantive knowledge she exercised while supervising some of the SEC’s most challenging enforcement actions makes her the perfect choice to lead the Los Angeles Regional Office into the future. I am delighted she has accepted this position.”

Carlo di Florio, Director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, added, “Michele has been a proven leader and strong partner with the National Exam Program. She has promoted effective coordination between our enforcement and exam teams. Her efforts have helped to ensure we are examining firms that present the most significant risks to investors and holding these firms and executives accountable. We are excited to welcome Michele to our leadership team.”

Ms. Layne said, “I am honored and fortunate for the opportunity to serve as the head of the Los Angeles Regional Office. For almost two decades, I have had the great privilege to work with the exceptionally dedicated and talented Los Angeles staff and look forward to leading our office’s continuing exemplary efforts on behalf of the investing public.”

As Regional Director, Ms. Layne will manage the examination and enforcement programs that operate out of the Los Angeles office, which has a staff of more than 120. The office primarily covers the SEC’s examination and enforcement efforts in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam.

Prior to joining the SEC staff in 1995, Ms. Layne worked in private practice for 11 years at the law firms of Dewey & LeBoeuf and Buchalter Nemer. Her practice concentrated on complex business litigation.

Ms. Layne received her law degree from the University of Southern California. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Los Angeles.