Andrew Calamari, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's outgoing New York regional director, won't become the latest government official to trade his post for a perch at a large international law firm. Instead, starting Jan. 15, Calamari will be a partner at 55-attorney Finn Dixon & Herling, a law firm in Stamford, Connecticut, that advises financial services firms in regulatory, corporate and litigation matters.

Before joining the SEC in 2000, Calamari ran his own law firm for a few years and was previously a litigation partner at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, an old-line New York law firm with about 30 partners that dissolved in 1998.

“I started out back in the old era of law firms,” Calamari said. “We were not businesspeople. Your main objective was the law and to serve the clients.”

After leaving the SEC in October 2017, he said he felt “like Rip Van Winkle, because when I awakened to look at the legal landscape, it's just vastly different. It really has become more of a business. Folks are practicing law, but they're spending a lot of their time on just marketing. That was something that I really wasn't interested in. I enjoyed the practice of law.”

He met with Finn Dixon on a recruiter's suggestion. He said his expertise fit well with the firm's focus and client industries, while he appreciated that the firm's partners include former government officials such as Jeffrey Plotkin, an alum of the SEC's New York office, and former federal prosecutors Michael English and Alfred Pavlis. The firm's location was another advantage, said Calamari, a resident of Fairfield, Connecticut, but he said it wasn't the deciding factor.

“When I look at the quality of practice at Finn and the quality of people, it reminds me in lot of ways of my old days at Donovan,” he said, adding it was compelling to work with a “group of people who devote the majority of their time to the practice of law.”

Calamari, 57, was in the SEC for about 17 years, first joining as an enforcement attorney, and in the last five years serving as director of the New York regional office. In this position, he led a staff of about 400 enforcement attorneys, accountants, investigators and compliance examiners involved in the investigation and prosecution of enforcement actions and the performance of compliance inspections in the New York region. His successor in the role is Marc Berger, a partner at Ropes & Gray.

At Finn Dixon, Calamari said he will advise clients such as private equity funds and hedge funds on regulatory issues and enforcement actions and litigation. Calamari, as a member of the firm's practices in government and internal investigations, litigation, and investment advisers/broker-dealers, will represent clients in securities litigation, enforcement and internal investigations and accounting-related matters. He will also counsel clients on compliance and examination issues.