Margaret C. "Peg" Henry plans to leave the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities next month to join the law firm of Winston & Strawn in New York City, sources said yesterday.
Henry could be reached for comment.
But sources said that Henry, an attorney fellow who joined the SEC for a two-year stint about a year ago, recently told commission officials that she is leaving in late June. She misses New York City, they said.
Martha Mahan Haines, director of the muni office, yesterday confirmed Henry is leaving. "I am saddened that Peg has decided to leave Washington, D.C., and return to New York City, her heart's true home," she said in a statement. "Her deep experience and insight into the workings of the municipal securities market will be greatly missed. Through her intensive efforts in designing and implementing the Office of Municipal Securities' review of the NRMSIR system, Peg has made a lasting contribution to the work of the commission and the interests of investors in municipal securities."
Henry recently finished an informal study of the nationally recognized municipal securities information repository system in the municipal market. The study concluded that the NRMSIRs did not have consistent or complete filings of issuers' disclosure documents and that some issuers are not complying with their secondary market disclosure obligations under the SEC's Rule 15c2-12.
Henry's pending departure, which has not yet been announced by the commission, comes as Stephen Weinstein, another attorney fellow, left the muni office Friday after the end of his two years there. Weinstein had worked on a number of SEC muni enforcement cases, including those involving the now-defunct broker-dealer Pacific Genesis Group, Inc. and the Allegheny, Pa., Health, Education, and Research Foundation, which filed for bankruptcy in 1998.
Sources said that a hiring freeze exists for some SEC divisions and that Weinstein and Henry may not be replaced, at least for now.
Henry has broad experience in the municipal market. Before joining the SEC, she was a partner and head of the public finance group at the Torys law firm in New York City. Prior to that, she was special counsel to O'Melveny & Myers and a partner at the now-defunct firm of Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon.
Henry served as tax counsel to New York City's Office of Management and Budget in 1995 and 1996. She was a managing director at Smith Barney Inc. from 1992 to 1994.
Before that, she served as tax counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee. She joined the congressional staff after serving as tax legislative counsel at the Treasury Department, where she focused on municipal bond regulation.
Henry received a bachelor's degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1973, a law degree from George Washington University in 1977, and a master's degree in tax law from George Washington in 1981.
