Law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell recruited the Securities andExchange Commission's former enforcement chief and another formerhigh-level government lawyer to join its white-collar defense group,part of an effort to expand its Washington practice.
Linda Chatman Thomsen, who left the SEC earlier this year, and RaulYanes, former staff secretary to President George W. Bush, are joiningthe law firm as partners.

Both had worked at Davis Polk in New York before joining the government.

The duo will be the first litigators in the 11-person Washington office in years.

FormerSEC Commissioner Annette Nazareth and Robert Colby, a former deputydirector of the SEC's trading and markets division, also recentlyjoined the firm's Washington office to focus on financial regulatoryissues.

Davis Polk clients, including large financialinstitutions, are closely entangled with the government as it haspumped billions of dollars into financial rescue plans. Congress isstudying new regulation of financial markets.