Dean Gregory Mandel welcomed Bill McLucas and Dick Walker, both from the Class of 1975, back to campus for the first Dean’s Forum of the fall semester, during which the two talked about their careers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. McLucas and Walker served as back-to-back Directors of Enforcement for the SEC, and Walker is the only person in history to have served as both Director of Enforcement and General Counsel for the agency. The graduates discussed their service at the SEC and the merits of public service generally, entertaining questions from students in the audience.
McLucas, who joined the SEC two years after graduation and rose through the ranks to serve as Director of Enforcement from 1989-1998, emphasized both the need for impeccable personal and professional integrity and the potential for public service to be “an enormous amount of fun.” Walker, who served as Director of Enforcement from 1998-2001, concurred, adding that public service is “an opportunity to do what you think is right.” Both graduates discussed the enormous sense of responsibility for wielding institutional authority – in particular the subpoena power – with care not to overreach.
Both graduates have since transitioned to private practice. McLucas is a partner and chair of the Securities department at Wilmer Hale, while Walker is a partner in the Special Matters & Government Investigations practice group at King & Spalding. Dean Mandel praised both McLucas and Walker as “fabulous Temple Law School ambassadors, both of whom give back to the school in many ways, including service on our Board of Visitors.”
Dean’s Fora are events, hosted by the Dean, for students to hear from lawyers whose work has taken them down a variety of interesting paths. They are often, but not always, graduates of Temple Law School.