Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Harvey Pitt has emerged as the leading candidate to head up the SEC.

Citing an unnamed White House official, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pitt is the Bush administration’s choice to head the securities regulator. He may be nominated officially as soon as this week. Pitt refused comment.

Pitt is a partner with a Washington, DC law firm of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. He was the SEC’s general counsel from 1975 to 1978, spending 10 years at the commission. He is also a Republican. Pitt ‘s nomination will have to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

Various commentators note that Pitt is one of the top guns to call in when industry players get in trouble with the SEC. He has also been a critic of the SEC’s Regulation FD, which forbids selective disclosure of company news.

Pitt also represented some of the large U.S. accounting firms, and criticized the SEC proposals, championed by former chair Arthur Levitt, to end conflicts of interest between auditing and consulting services at those firms.