Michele Wein Layne

Regional Director, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Michele Wein Layne has been the Regional Director for the Los Angeles office since 2012. Ms. Layne was an Associate Regional Director for Enforcement in the L.A. office from 2005 to 2012. She began her SEC career in 1995 as a staff attorney in the Enforcement Division. Ms. Layne served as the Co-Acting Regional Director after the departure of prior office director Rosalind Tyson earlier in 2012.

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. Ms. Layne received the SEC’s 2009 Distinguished Service Award, the agency’s highest honorary award.

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.