President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Mary Schapiro as chairwoman of the agency. The SEC has recently come under fire for failing to detect Wall Street fraud, including an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff. Schapiro would replace outgoing SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.

Schapiro (pictured right) is chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., the largest nongovernmental regulator for securities firms. Schapiro joined the organization in 1996 as president of NASD Regulation and was named vice chair in 2002. In 2006, she was named NASD's chair and CEO. Schapiro then led the organization's consolidation with NYSE Member Regulation to form Finra. Schapiro was also chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She was appointed to that post by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Before that, Schapiro served for six years as a commissioner of the SEC. She was appointed in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, reappointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 and named acting chair by President Clinton in 1993.

Obama also named Gary Gensler as head of the CFTC and Daniel Tarullo to sit on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve Board.

Gensler (left) was under secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. He also spent 18 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., eventually becoming co-head of finance. Tarullo (right) is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Tarullo held several senior positions in the Clinton administration, ultimately as assistant to the president for International Economic Policy.

Separately, the SEC named Elizabeth Murphy as secretary of the commission. Murphy is head of the Office of Rulemaking in the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance. She will replace Nancy Morris, who left in May to rejoin the private sector.

Legg Mason Inc. hired Peter Sundman as president and CEO of ClearBridge Advisors LLC, one of its principal asset management subsidiaries, based in New York.

Sundman worked at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s former asset management arm Neuberger Berman Management Inc., which he joined in 1988. He was chairman and chief executive of Neuberger Berman Mutual Funds. ClearBridge Advisors was established in 2006 after Legg Mason acquired Citigroup Asset Management.

The firm recently elected Mark Fetting, president, CEO and a director, as chairman of the board. He succeeds Legg Mason co-founder Raymond Mason, who has served in a nonexecutive capacity since Fetting's appointment as chief executive in January. Mason, who leaves the board, will continue as a senior adviser.

StepStone Group LLC announced that James Gamett has joined the firm as a managing director and head of secondary investments, a new position. He was previously vice president of secondary investments at Portfolio Advisors LLC. Before that, Gamett worked at Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance LLC.

Tom Rodgers was promoted to partner, and Christian Cortis and Andrew Friendly were named principals at Advanced Technology Ventures. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Rogers covers healthcare investments, focusing on medical devices, diagnostics and other therapy-enabling technologies.

Cortis focuses on investments in the life sciences and therapeutic devices sectors. Friendly handles cleantech investments. Cortis and Friendly work from Waltham, Mass.

Bruce Lehman joined Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP as senior counsel in the firm's global and technology and intellectual property groups. Formerly at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, he will continue to serve as chair of the International Intellectual Property Institute.

From 1993 to 1998, Lehman was assistant secretary of commerce at the Department of Commerce and as commissioner of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Morrison & Foerster LLP named 10 lawyers to its January partnership class.

Patent litigator Anders Aannestad, resident in San Diego, focuses on biotechnology. Jonathan Bockman of Northern Virginia handles patent law. New Yorker Thomas Devaney specializes in private equity fund formation and investment. Patent prosecutor Christopher Eide practices from Palo Alto, Calif. James Halstead covers corporate transactions from London. Litigators Rebekah Kaufman and David Melaugh reside in San Francisco. Patent attorney James Mullen III is based in San Diego. New York-based Norman Rosenbaum handles restructuring, and Ivan Smallwood of Tokyo covers cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP elected 16 attorneys to its partnership, effective Jan. 1: Trial lawyers J. Philip Calabrese, Aneca Lasley and Greg Wehrer; Sean Cork, bankruptcy and restructuring; Peter Culp, environmental, health and safety; Carlos Derraik and Kevin Levey, energy; Francis Li, Munehiro Matsumoto, Christopher Rose and Michael Wager, corporate; José Martín and Song Zhu, intellectual property; Pedro Miranda and Catherine Tompkins, public finance; and Sergey Treshchev, international dispute resolution.