The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named securities lawyer John White as its next director of the Division of Corporation Finance.

White, 58, is currently a partner at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he has a practice representing public companies and their financial advisors. He has been involved in hundreds of public financings, including numerous initial public offerings, and is highly respected for his work advising companies on their corporate governance and public reporting responsibilities as well as counseling companies during restatements and other financial crises.

“It is a great honor to be asked to serve in this role,” White said. “Our capital markets and our legal and regulatory systems have undergone sweeping changes in recent years and the challenge of ensuring that our markets and regulations remain sensitive to the needs of investors and issuers, and are responsive to the opportunities presented by technological advances, makes this an especially exciting time to be joining the staff.”

“John brings unsurpassed expertise and experience with our securities laws, along with a deep commitment to promoting and safeguarding the interests of investors and the efficient operation of our capital markets,” said SEC chairman Christopher Cox. “Alan Beller successfully met the dual challenges of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley and the most significant securities regulatory reform in 70 years. John’s mission — to maintain the integrity and strength of our markets in an era of unprecedented global competition — may prove even more challenging.”

The SEC says that White is widely recognized for his insight and judgment about matters of financial disclosure and public company accounting, and he will work with others at the commission to continue to improve financial reporting as well as to further the commission’s interests in pursuing international convergence of accounting and financial disclosure standards. He will also work closely with the commission to expand the use of interactive data to make financial reports more useful and to find and develop additional ways in which technology may improve the accessibility and utility of public disclosures and other information for investors.

White will initially focus on the commission’s consideration of proposed rules to improve disclosure of executive compensation, to rationalize the rules by which foreign companies may exit U.S. markets and to enhance the corporate proxy process for shareholders through the Internet.

White became a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in January. He will resign that post but will continue to work closely with the PCAOB to improve auditing practices in the U.S. and around the world.

White will join the staff of the commission on March 20.