August 3, 2002 marks Harvey Pitt’s one-year anniversary as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under ethics rules, chairman Pitt’s one-year recusal expires that day. Mr. Pitt has indicated that he will decide whether to participate in matters brought before the Commission on a case-by-case basis.

“What should have been apparent at the time of his confirmation is now abundantly clear. His conflicts are so pervasive that he will need to recuse himself from many of the most important questions and issues brought before the Commission. Since he cannot be a full time arms-length chairman of the SEC, President Bush should therefore ask for his resignation.”

A partial list of Pitt’s former law clients includes the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), all of the big five accounting firms (Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers) and the following:

Corporations
America Online
Dell Computer
El Paso Natural Gas
General Instrument
Humana
Louisiana-Pacific

Securities & Investment Firms
Bear Stearns
Charles Schwab
Datek Online
Dawson-Samberg
Gruntal
Investment Company Institute
Kinight/Trimark
Merrill Lynch
Montgomery Asset Management
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
New York Stock Exchange
PaineWebber
TIAA-CREF
Tiger Management

Banks & Insurance
Bank of America
Bank One
Cigna
Lincoln National Life
Lloyds of London
Securities Investment Protection
Reliance Group

Business Groups
Chamber of Commerce
Investment Company Institute
Securities Industry Association

Source: Office of Government Ethics (as reported in Business Week, 2/4/02)

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