Anthony Alexis, former CFPB enforcement director. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

Anthony Alexis, the former enforcement director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is joining Goodwin Procter, where he will lead the firm's consumer financial services enforcement practice as a partner.

Alexis left the CFPB on Nov. 17, capping a tenure in which he oversaw many of the agency's highest-profile enforcement actions, including the $100 million settlement with Wells Fargo & Co. over the bank's aggressive sales practices. He joined the CFPB in 2012 from Mayer Brown, where he had been a partner, and was formally named enforcement director in 2015 after holding that role in an interim capacity since July 2013.

Goodwin Procter was among the firms that in recent months expressed interest in hiring from the consumer bureau. Alexis wasn't immediately reached for comment Monday. In a statement, Alexis described as “premier” the consumer financial practice at Goodwin Procter.

“In addition to my extensive experience in the consumer financial services regulation and enforcement space, my decades of work in government investigations and litigation are well-suited to Goodwin's outstanding record of success in handling the most challenging litigation and enforcement matters in the administrative, trial court and appellate arenas,” Alexis said in a statement. “I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Goodwin's litigation, enforcement and regulatory experts for the benefit of our clients.”

Alexis' interest in returning to Big Law had been widely known in the CFPB orbit for the past year, but a return to Mayer Brown was considered unlikely. The firm had earlier bolstered its consumer finance practice in pulling a team from K&L Gates that included Ori Lev, a former deputy enforcement director at the CFPB.

In the months leading up to Alexis' departure, Goodwin Procter was among the top firms courting a high-ranking CFPB official, whose name was redacted in ethics disclosures concerning a summer meeting with the firm. The firms Sidley Austin, Ballard Spahr and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips had also requested to meet with a senior CFPB official, according to similar ethics disclosures, and were known in the legal industry to be interested in Alexis.

Earlier this month, Alexis' top deputy, Kristen Donoghue, was appointed his successor, as The National Law Journal first reported. But her tenure may be brief.

On Nov. 24, just weeks after promoting Donoghue to enforcement director, Richard Cordray resigned and elevated his chief of staff, Leandra English, to the role of deputy director. The promotion put English in line to step in as the agency's acting director.

Within hours of Cordray announcing his resignation, effective last Nov. 24, the Trump administration appointed Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to serve as the CFPB's temporary head while the White House moves to install a permanent replacement.

English, represented by Deepak Gupta of Washington's Gupta Wessler, on Sunday night sued the Trump administration to block Mulvaney's leadership as acting director. English and Mulvaney both showed up to work Monday morning at CFPB headquarters in Washington.

The competing claims to the acting directorship have thrown the CFPB's first significant transfer of power into disarray.

With a box of doughnuts in tow, Mulvaney arrived at the CFPB headquarters Monday morning and has held meetings with agency staff. In an email, he directed CFPB staff to not recognize English as the agency's leader, Reuters reported.

“Please disregard any instructions you receive from Ms. English in her presumed capacity as acting director,” he wrote. “If you receive additional communications from her today … please inform the general counsel.” (The CFPB's general counsel, Mary McLeod, issued a memo on Nov. 25 supporting the appointment of Mulvaney as acting director.)

Earlier Monday, English wrote an email welcoming CFPB back from the Thanksgiving holiday and expressed her gratitude for their service, signing off as the “acting director.”

English's lawsuit asked a federal judge to declare her the agency's rightful—albeit temporary—leader and order the Trump administration to refrain from appointing an acting director. Ultimately, Trump has the power to nominate a successor to Cordray, who has not announced his post-CFPB plans.

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