Harvey Pitt, a authorized wunderkind who lasted simply 18 months as chairman of the Securities and Alternate Fee below President George W. Bush, died on Tuesday in Washington. He was 78.
His demise, in a hospital, got here after a sudden sickness, in response to his household, which didn’t specify the ailment.
Mr. Pitt’s profession had three consecutive legs, any considered one of which alone might need been the top on a lesser résumé. He started his profession on the S.E.C. and was promoted to normal counsel at age 30, the youngest ever to attain that rank. After solely three years, he left to characterize company shoppers for the highly effective legislation agency Fried Frank. There, rising to managing companion within the agency’s Washington workplace, he helped it change into massively worthwhile.
He returned to the S.E.C. as chairman in 2001, after crusing by way of a unanimous affirmation vote wherein Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, referred to as him “the Zeus of the field.” Not lengthy after, Mr. Pitt turned considerably of a family title for overseeing the swift reopening of U.S. inventory exchanges after the assaults of Sept. 11, 2001.
His recognition dipped, nonetheless, amid a collection of company accounting scandals — most famously on the power large Enron — that drew renewed consideration to his prior company work. Representatives of each events questioned his curiosity in investigating private-sector wrongdoing.
The ultimate straw got here when it emerged that he had failed to inform the White Home or his fellow S.E.C. commissioners that an accounting board chairman he championed had headed the audit committee of an organization accused of fraud. Underneath strain, Mr. Pitt resigned on election evening 2002.
Born on Feb. 28, 1945 in Brooklyn, Harvey Lloyd Pitt was the kid of Morris and Sara Pitt. His father was a vice chairman of the Waldbaum’s grocery store chain; his mom was a homemaker.
Harvey, a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who was gutted when the staff left for the West Coast, his household mentioned, went on to earn levels from Brooklyn School and St. John’s College earlier than becoming a member of the S.E.C. straight out of faculty. It was the one job he had ever wished.
In 1978, with a rising household, he went into non-public apply, the place he represented a few of the identical individuals his group had been charged with regulating. His shoppers included Ivan Boesky, who pleaded responsible to insider buying and selling through the junk bond scandal of the late Eighties, and scores of monetary companies.
Such was his fame that when Mr. Pitt’s personal agency landed in a minor authorized spat, his hiring of the then-smaller rival agency Williams & Connolly made waves.
“It was notable that if Harvey Pitt had confidence in us, others would easily follow, and they did,” mentioned Brendan Sullivan, a Williams & Connolly senior companion.
At his affirmation listening to, Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, provided a tweak on a tune lyric from the British rock band Hermit’s Hermits: “Harvey Pitt has seen it from both sides.”
Contained in the fee, he was indefatigable, mentioned Cynthia Glassman, a former commissioner. After the group acquired Blackberry smartphones for the primary time, she mentioned, Mr. Pitt turned “big on emails — especially in the middle of the night.”
He took a lighter method to S.E.C. enforcement than did his predecessors, telling Congress that he would “repair relationships that have been harmed in the past.” That angle proved untenable within the wake of Enron and different scandals.
“Your choice of words sends the wrong message to auditors, to the S.E.C. staff and to the investing public,” Rep. John Dingell wrote to Mr. Pitt just a few weeks after Enron’s collapse.
Morale within the company dropped precipitously throughout Mr. Pitt’s tenure, and a slew of senior employees departed.
His fall in stature was summarized by a New York Occasions headline on the day in 2003 that his successor, William H. Donaldson, was confirmed: “S.E.C. Choice Says He’s No Harvey Pitt.”
However mates and former colleagues mentioned Mr. Pitt had been unjustly criticized. The previous S.E.C. normal counsel David Becker recalled being on the telephone with Mr. Pitt when the true property developer Donald J. Trump referred to as to complain about Trump corporations being investigated for fraud.
“Harvey politely explained that he was not in a position to help, since he had added to the division’s proposal the very fraud allegation about which Trump was calling to complain,” Mr. Becker mentioned.
Mr. Pitt’s first marriage, to Phyllis Kay, resulted in divorce in 1981. He married Saree Ruffin in 1984. He’s survived by his spouse; two daughters, Emily Pitt and Sally Pitt Plowden; two sons, Jonathan and Rob; and three grandchildren.
Within the years that adopted his S.E.C. chairmanship, Mr. Pitt hardly receded from public view. He continued to weigh in on regulatory points, often contributing opinion articles to The Wall Road Journal.
His most up-to-date column took a pointy view of latest proposed S.E.C. guidelines on non-public funding funds.
“Too often, regulatory demands make it difficult or impossible for new entrants to gain traction in an industry,” Mr. Pitt wrote. “There is often no voice at the table representing the interests of that segment of the industry.”
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