Shearman & Sterling's marketing department deposited nary a word on the firm's website when the Trump administration announced last month that Robert Evans, a firm partner at the time, would become deputy of the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of corporate finance.

Previously, when the Trump White House tapped William Hinman, a retired Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner, to serve as the director of the SEC's corporate finance division, that firm, too, kept quiet.

Similarly, earlier this spring, when Jay Clayton, then a Sullivan & Cromwell partner, left to become the SEC's chairman and tapped his former partner, Steven Peikin, to be co-director of the agency's enforcement division, their firm's marketing team stayed mum.