WilmerHale Partner Stephen M. Cutler was named Executive Vice President, General Counsel of JPMorgan Chase, effective February 2007. In his new role, Mr. Cutler will serve as head of the company’s legal and compliance activities worldwide.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Steve,” said William J. Perlstein, co-managing partner, WilmerHale. “Steve’s departure reminds us of the truly remarkable record that our firm has compiled in staffing leadership positions in major financial institutions and in important governmental positions in this country. We are proud of Steve and his accomplishments. While we will miss him, we wish him nothing but the best.”

Mr. Cutler joins JPMorgan Chase from the Washington, DC office of WilmerHale where he is a partner and co-chair of the firm’s Securities Department. Prior to re-joining the firm in 2005, he was Director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. During his six-year tenure at the SEC, Mr. Cutler oversaw 1,100 employees and led the agency’s investigations of numerous financial reporting matters, as well as its actions involving exchange specialists, research analysts and mutual funds.

Prior to joining the SEC in 1999, Mr. Cutler was a partner at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering where he worked for 11 years. Before joining the firm, he served as a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles and a law clerk to Judge Dorothy Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Cutler received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.