President Trump selected Dan Berkovitz, who was general counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama era, as his nominee for commissioner of the agency, said the White House. If confirmed by the Senate, Berkovitz would fill one of the seats reserved for Democrats on the five-member commission.
At present, Berkovitz is a partner and co-chair of the futures and derivatives practice at WilmerHale, a Washington law firm. Before working at the CFTC, he was a senior lawyer for the Senate Homeland Security Committee and a deputy assistant secretary at the Energy Department. He is vice-chair of the American Bar Association’s committee on futures and derivatives.
The nomination of Berkovitz would open the way for the Senate to act on last year’s nomination of Dawn Stump for the other vacant seat on the CFTC. Stump, a former vice president of NYSE Euronext, would hold a CFTC seat reserved for Republicans. With a pair of nominees, the Senate can fill the vacancies at the CFTC without affecting the political balance at the agency, which oversees the futures and derivatives markets.