Mary Jo White appears poised to face a confirmation hearing next month, a crucial step for the former federal prosecutor on her path to becoming the top Wall Street regulator.
Ms. White, whose nomination to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission has lingered for over a month, plans to testify in March before the Senate Banking Committee, two Congressional officials briefed on the matter said. The committee has not set a firm date for the confirmation hearing, the officials said, though lawmakers have tentatively scheduled her to appear the week of March 11.
The committee, which oversees the S.E.C. and other financial regulators, must bless her appointment before the full Senate holds a vote. While some officials have quietly expressed concerns about Ms. White’s role as a Wall Street defense lawyer, her nomination is not expected to face major complications.
The timetable laid out on Monday represents a slight delay from earlier plans. An S.E.C. official who spoke anonymously said he agency initially expected Ms. White to face a confirmation hearing in early February.
The extra time has proved helpful. Over the last couple weeks, Ms. White has received multiple briefings from agency staff members about new securities rules and the structure of the stock market, the official said. The briefings will in part prepare her for the confirmation hearing, which is expected to cover a broad scope of topics.
While Ms. White is a skilled litigator, she lacks experience in financial rule-writing and regulatory minutiae, a potential stumbling block for her nomination. Lawmakers also expect to raise questions about her movements in and out of the revolving door that bridges government service and private practice. Some Democrats, a person briefed on the matter said, will question whether she is too cozy with Wall Street.
In private practice, Ms. White defended some of Wall Street’s biggest names, including Kenneth D. Lewis, a former chief of Bank of America. As the head! of litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton, she also represented JPMorgan Chase and the board of Morgan Stanley. Her husband, John White, is co-chairman of the corporate governance practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he represents many of the same companies that the S.E.C. regulates.
(Ms. White has agreed to recuse herself from many matters that involve former clients, while her husband agreed to convert his partnership at Cravath from equity to nonequity status.)
Despite some reservations, she is expected to receive broad support on Capitol Hill. When President Obama nominated her last month, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York was one of several Democrats to praise her prosecutorial prowess, calling her “tough-as-nails†during stints as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn and as the first female United States attorney in Manhattan.
While she handled some white-collar and securities cases, her specialty was terrorism and mafia cases. As a top federal prosecutor in New York City fo more than a decade, she helped oversee the prosecution of the crime boss John Gotti and directed the case against those responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. She also supervised the original investigation into Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.
