Harvey L. Pitt (born February 28, 1945) is an American lawyer who served as the 26th chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), from 2001 to 2003. History Pitt graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1961. He graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor's degree in 1965, and from St. John's University School of Law with a JD degree in 1968. He later received the Presidential Medal of Distinction from Brooklyn College in 2003 and an honorary LLD from St. John's University School of Law. From 1968 to 1978, Pitt served on the staff of the SEC, eventually becoming the agency's youngest general counsel in 1975 (at age 30). In between his two tenures at the SEC, Pitt was a senior partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he represented clients such as: Lloyd's of London, the New York Stock Exchange, Fortune 500 corporations, and "virtually all the exchanges and investment houses." Pitt was later the chairman of the SEC, serving for eighteen months between 2001 and 2003 (rather than his full five-year term), before he resigned abruptly during a wave of criticism. Notable accomplishments As the 26th Chairman of the SEC, Pitt, among other things, oversaw the SEC's response to the market disruptions resulting from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for which he was lauded as a "voice of calm." Further, Pitt was the "architect of the new rule requiring executives of large companies to personally certify their financial results." Pitt created the SEC's "real time enforcement" program—a policy designed to make the SEC's enforcement initiatives more efficient and effective for the protection of investors and led the SEC's unanimous adoption of dozens of rules implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Criticism and resignation In July 2002, The New York Times wrote: "Democratic and Republican members of Congress joined administration officials today in ridiculing Harvey L. Pitt's request that his pay be increased and his job as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission be elevated to cabinet rank ... evoking an outpouring of bipartisan scorn." Pitt had tried to insert a provision into corporate antifraud legislation that would increase his pay by 21%, and also elevate his status to that of cabinet level, on a par with the secretary of state and attorney general, at a time when the stock markets had sunk to five-year lows and some congressional leaders were calling for him