Grewal fills the role after the departure of Alex Oh, a former Wall Street attorney who resigned from the position in April after less than a week on the job.
“[Grewal] has had a distinguished career as New Jersey’s chief law enforcement officer and as a prosecutor at both the local and federal levels,” said Gary Gensler, the SEC chair, in a statement. “He has the ideal combination of experience, values, and leadership ability to helm the Enforcement Division at this critical time.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Grewal was appointed amidst criticism from some that the SEC has been “too quick in the past to choose lawyers with strong Wall Street ties to police the financial industry.”
Critics of what has been called a “revolving door” between corporate law firms and government posts opposed the appointment of Oh to the SEC Enforcement Division, citing her past as a lawyer that represented numerous Fortune 100 companies, including Bank of America and ExxonMobil. She resigned on April 28 after a federal judge questioned her conduct during a deposition in a lawsuit filed against ExxonMobil, a source with knowledge of the situation told the New York Times.
While Grewal still holds experience representing corporations and executives at the law firm Howrey LLP from 1999 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2010, he also has an extensive prosecutorial background. Before becoming New Jersey attorney general in 2018, Grewal was the top law enforcement official in Bergen County, N.J., and was assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey, where he led the office’s economic crimes unit. Howrey dissolved and declared bankruptcy in 2011.
As attorney general in New Jersey, Grewal prosecuted cases related to predatory auto lending and the overcharging of credit card fees. He has also handled cases related to gun control and opioids, as well as filing numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Grewal was the first Sikh to serve as state attorney general in the United States. 