Andrew J. Ceresney is an American lawyer at

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is an international white-shoe law firm headquartered in New York City, with offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Luxembourg. The firm specializes in intellectual ...

and a former government official who served as director of the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

's Division of Enforcement.

Biography

Ceresney graduated from Columbia College, ''summa cum laude''

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

, in 1993 and received his J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1996. From 1996 to 1997, he served as a law clerk to

Michael Mukasey Michael Bernard Mukasey (; born July 28, 1941) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009 and as a U.S. district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of N ...

, former Chief Judge of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of the State of New York. Two of these are in New York Ci ...

. He then served as a law clerk to

Dennis Jacobs Dennis G. Jacobs (born February 28, 1944) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Education and career Born and raised in New York City, Jacobs graduated from Forest Hills High Scho ...

, Chief Judge of the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont, and it has appellate jurisdic ...

between 1997 and 1998. He served as Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he was a member of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force and the Major Crimes Unit, overseeing investigations, trials, and appeals into white collar crimes including securities fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and corruption. He joined

in 2003, becoming the co-chair of the firm's white collar and regulatory defense group. At Debevoise, Ceresney represented a number of the nation’s largest banks, including

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

during an inquiry involving its foreclosure practices. He also helped depose

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

in a lawsuit against

Timothy L. O'Brien Timothy L. O'Brien (born 1961) is an American journalist, author and television commentator. Early life and education Born in Illinois, O'Brien is a graduate of Loyola Academy and Georgetown University, where he studied literature. He has th ...

for underestimating his net worth in a book. In 2013, he was hired by

Mary Jo White Mary Jo White (born December 27, 1947) is an American attorney who served as the 31st chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2013 to 2017. She was the first woman to be the United States Attorney for the Southern District o ...

to join the

as Co-Director of its Division of Enforcement. Ceresney previously served as White's lieutenant as a defense lawyer at Debevoise and a federal prosecutor in the

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

for more than a decade. He took sole leadership in 2014. As head of SEC's division of enforcement, he took on a " broken windows" approach, enforcing the smallest of violations in hopes of keeping Wall Street from breaking major ones. Under his tenure, the division brought about 2,850 enforcement actions and obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $13.8 billion in monetary sanctions. The SEC also charged over 3,300 companies and over 2,700 individuals, including many senior corporate executives. Over 80 were tried in federal court, including insider trading cases against Leon Cooperman and sports better Billy Walters. In 2017, Ceresney left the

and re-joined

as co-chair of the firm's litigation practice, a post once held by his mentor,

. He was succeeded by Stephanie Avakian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ceresney, Andrew Living people U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission personnel People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton Columbia College (New York) alumni Yale Law School alumni Lawyers from New York City Year of birth missing (living people)