At a conference, former SEC officials—now in private practice—were enthusiastic about the newly appointed director of the Division of Corporation Finance (CorpFin) as he is expected to fully implement Chair Paul Atkins’ deregulatory agenda aimed at promoting capital formation.
In September Atkins appointed James Moloney as CorpFin chief. He comes from Gibson Dunn & Cutcher LLP. This will be his second tenure at the SEC, having worked at the agency from 1994 to 2000, including in the Office of Mergers & Acquisitions in CorpFin.
The chair of the SEC sets its regulatory priorities, and Atkins’ first rulemaking agenda—which was unveiled in early September—includes disclosure rationalization and simplification of filer status for reporting companies. While it is not reflected on the current semi-annual regulatory agenda, the SEC is also expected to write a rule related to the frequency of financial reporting as requested by President Trump.
Atkins believes that while the SEC’s rulebook has gotten longer, many of the information provided is immaterial, cluttering disclosure documents. Such disclosure overload drives up compliance costs while not providing useful information to investors.
‘He Is Very Aligned With Chairman Atkins’
Because Moloney was a staff member in CorpFin, doing the core work of the division, including disclosure reviews, “he knows how the place works,” said John White, a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, at the 57th annual Institute on Securities Regulation hosted by the Practising Law Institute on November 5, 2025, in New York.
“The thing that I found interesting in talking with him…, he is very aligned with Chairman Atkins, I suppose no surprise, but if you listen to what he is saying, and I’m going to compare it to the public statements we’ve seen Atkins make, and really all three of the Republican commissioners, he appreciates the SEC’s three-part mission, particularly the capital raising part of it,” said White, who served as CorpFin director from 2006 to 2008.
“Moloney understands materiality… reducing disclosure of immaterial items. He’s aligned with risk factors being too long and needing to be shorter. He’s aligned with the concept that we need to have the SEC reporting process be less burdensome and more attractive to public companies. I’m going to call it the Atkins’ principles,” White said. “And he’s thoughtful. He has real-world experience. He knows the building, … he’s well acquainted with the SEC mission.”
‘We Are Very Lucky He Said Yes’
Meredith Cross, CorpFin director from 2009 to 2013, also praised Moloney.
“Having somebody come back who has that history and who is well regarded as they embark on an incredibly busy mission, it’s very helpful to have someone who understands them, and Jim is great for that,” said Cross, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.
“He’s a good, kind guy who is intrigued by securities law, and he views this as a great opportunity to get to do something fun and help the SEC, help investors, help companies,” she added. “It’s great that he’s got a very positive attitude about it, and he’s also humble, and he knows that this is not going to be easy. And so it’s great. We’re very lucky that he said yes.”
Brian Breheny, who was chief of CorpFin’s Office of Mergers and Acquisitions, said he has known Moloney for a long time, also having gone to high school together.
“But more importantly, it’s the M&A office—the real leadership thing,” he joked. “If you want to be in charge at the SEC, you’ve got to come to the M&A office.”
More seriously, Breheny said that Moloney’s the perfect choice because he comes from the West Coast where he spent the last 25 years. “So he gives a different perspective.”
Keir Gumbs, another former CorpFin staffer, was also excited about the prospect of having Moloney running the division at the SEC once the current government shutdown ends. (publisher’s note: this story was originally published on November 7)
CorpFin Will ‘Be Open to Having a Conversation’ With Companies
“The commission is ‘open for business,’ setting aside the shutdown,” said Gumbs, chief legal officer at Edward Jones. “I think Jim is very aligned with that. And I think for those of you who may have interpretive questions that you thought about asking before, but thought maybe the agency was not going to be open to it—or could be disclosure, accounting, etc., there’s no guarantee on what the answer would be from Jim or the team. I think they’re going to look at it thoughtfully, but I do think that they would be open to having a conversation. And I do think that’s a big change.”
Cross said that Moloney will likely tackle regulatory issues he found problematic in advising corporate clients.
“He probably has—like we all did when we go there—things that drove him crazy in practice that he would like to fix,” she said. “And I’ll never forget, when I first got back there, the non-GAAP measure interps were making me nuts because they weren’t consistent with the rules, and they were random. And so it took me a long time to get people to come around to, you know, we did new CDIs [compliance and disclosure interpretations], we did all this stuff to try to get non-GAAP rules that actually were consistent with the rules.”
“I am sure he’s got a fair share,” Cross said.
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