Sullivan & Cromwell's Brent McIntosh Is Picked for Treasury GC

Dick Duane

McIntosh’s nomination reportedly faced resistance from the White House amid questions about his support for Trump. According to a Bloomberg LP report this month, administration officials were skeptical of McIntosh based on news articles he posted on his Twitter account, which is now set to private. McIntosh had supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the Republican primary, and as his nomination hung in the balance, supporters sought to assure the administration that his social media posts displayed not anti-Trump sentiment but rather opposition to Hillary Clinton.

The New York Law Journal, an ALM affiliate publication, named McIntosh a “rising star” in 2013. He first joined the firm’s New York office in 2001 and, after stints in the government, rejoined in 2009. McIntosh’s service in the federal government includes posts in the White House, where he was an associate counsel from 2006 to 2009, and in the U.S. Justice Department. He served in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy from 2004 to 2006.

A Yale Law School graduate, McIntosh was a law clerk to Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Judge Laurence Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The White House announced several other Treasury and financial agency nominees on Tuesday, including James Donovan for deputy secretary at the Treasury. Donovan is a managing director at Goldman Sachs and an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Trump picked Sigal Mandelker, a Proskauer Rose partner in New York, to lead the Treasury’s terrorism and financial intelligence team. Mandelker, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has served various roles in the government, including stints at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and, more recently, senior posts at Homeland Security and the Justice Department.

Christopher Giancarlo was nominated to lead the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he has served as a commissioner since 2014. Giancarlo has advanced what he described as a “forward-looking” agenda for the agency, including a greater promotion of financial technology.

“Financial regulators must address how to prevent death from a thousand cuts by numerous state, federal and foreign regulators for fintech firms that look to provide services across various financial market regulatory jurisdictions,” Giancarlo said in his speech in December.

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