Robert E. Rice, Chief Counsel to SEC Chair, to Leave SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Robert E. Rice, Chief Counsel to Chair Mary Jo White, will leave the agency at the end of February.

Chair White named Mr. Rice her Chief Counsel in June 2013.  In that position, Mr. Rice has been a senior legal and policy advisor to Chair White and has provided advice and counsel on a wide range of regulatory matters across the Commission’s divisions and offices, including enforcement actions and strategy; oversight and examinations of broker-dealers, investment advisers, self-regulatory organizations and credit rating agencies; and cross-border regulatory matters. 

“Bob is one of the brightest and finest professionals I have ever known,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  “I relied on his impeccable judgment on a variety of important enforcement and regulatory issues, and I am very grateful to him for his service to the agency and to me.”

Mr. Rice said, “I am deeply privileged to have had this opportunity to return to public service and serve again under Mary Jo.  I am also particularly honored to have worked with the tremendously talented and dedicated SEC staff whose work is so important to the protection of investors and the integrity of our markets.”

Before coming to the SEC, Mr. Rice worked from 2004 to 2013 at Deutsche Bank AG in New York, where he oversaw all regulatory and criminal enforcement, litigation and governance matters in the Americas, and was the Global Co-Head of the bank’s Governance, Litigation and Regulation Operating Committee.  From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Rice was a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery in New York, where he concentrated his practice in white collar regulatory and criminal defense matters on behalf of corporate entities and corporate officers and directors. 

Before joining McDermott, Will & Emery, Mr. Rice spent almost 10 years in public service in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted numerous securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, money laundering and many other types of criminal offenses.  He also served as a Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney from 1996 to 1998 and as a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 1998 to 2000, overseeing approximately 160 federal prosecutors. 

Mr. Rice began his legal career in 1987 as an associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York, where he worked on complex business litigation matters.  He received his undergraduate degree from Springfield College, a master’s degree from Montclair State College, and his J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law.