The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Matthew C. Solomon will be promoted to the position of Chief Litigation Counsel in the Division of Enforcement next month.

Mr. Solomon has served as Deputy Chief Litigation Counsel since June 2012, assisting the Chief Litigation Counsel in the supervision of the trial unit at the agency’s Washington D.C. headquarters as well as coordination with litigators at the SEC’s 11 regional offices around the country. 

The upcoming departure of the current Chief Litigation Counsel, Matthew T. Martens, also was announced today.

“Matt Solomon is a talented and highly accomplished litigator with a firm grasp of the securities laws and the confidence of our trial lawyers,” Andrew Ceresney, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “With Matt as chief, the SEC will continue to be a formidable and feared trial threat.”

Mr. Solomon said, “I am honored to have been chosen as Chief Litigation Counsel.  As Deputy Chief, I have worked closely with Mr. Martens and the Division’s Co-Directors and I’m excited about the direction of the Division of Enforcement.  I look forward to helping continue to build upon the successes of our strong litigation program.”

Before joining the SEC staff, Mr. Solomon served as a federal prosecutor for more than 10 years.  He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and was later elevated to chief of that office’s fraud unit, where he supervised 25 prosecutors handling hundreds of white-collar criminal matters, including securities fraud offenses.

Prior to his work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Solomon was a federal prosecutor in the public integrity section of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  He successfully tried several jury trials to verdict nationwide, involving charges as extortion, money laundering, tax fraud, bribery, and obstruction of justice.  In addition to his work as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Solomon served as a counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.  He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and then as a law clerk for Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Solomon received his B.A. magna cum laude from Wesleyan University, and his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was notes & comments editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.