(Updates with comment from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Dodd in last paragraph.)

By Judith Burns and Henry J. Pulizzi

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Bush administration announced Friday that it intends to name two securities lawyers to fill Democratic vacancies on the five- member Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bush plans to nominate Luis Aguilar, a partner with the law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge in Atlanta, and Elisse Walter, a senior executive vice president at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had recommended Aguilar and Walter last year. If confirmed by the Senate, Aguilar would fill the seat previously held by Roel Campos, giving him a term that expires in June 2010, while Walter would serve until mid-2012, finishing the remaining term of former commissioner Annette Nazareth.

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore characterized the announcement as a sign of progress on the nominations front and said the administration is hopeful that when the Senate returns next week, it will quickly act on more than 200 pending nominations.

"We congratulate the nominees and wish them well as they go through the confirmation process," SEC spokesman John Nester said in a statement Friday.

Aguilar couldn't be reached for comment. Finra Chief Executive Mary Schapiro said in a statement that "we think Elisse is a great choice for many reasons - first and foremost for her career-long commitment to investor protection."

University of Rochester President Joel Seligman, an author of a history of the SEC, predicted Walter will be a thoughtful and creative SEC commissioner. "She is sharp, she is very knowledgeable about securities regulation," said Seligman, who was a classmate of Walter's at Harvard Law School and serves on the Finra board.

Both are "excellent choices," according to Campos, now a partner at the law firm of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, in Washington, D.C. He said the announcement comes at a crucial time for the SEC, given the turmoil following the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) and talk of shifting some oversight of Wall Street investment banks to the Federal Reserve.

"Having a full slate of commissioners of both parties creates the sense for investors that the commission can do its job properly," Campos said.

By law, no more than three SEC commissioners may be of the same party as the president. The SEC now has no Democratic members as Campos left in September and Nazareth stepped down this year. Their departure left the commission in the hands of three Republicans, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox and Commissioners Paul Atkins and Kathleen Casey, and congressional Democrats have urged Cox to avoid controversial rulemaking until political balance is restored.

Aguilar, a Cuban-American, is a 1979 graduate of the University of Georgia Law School and a former SEC attorney. He spent nearly a decade as a general counsel of a unit of investment advisory firm Invesco PLC (IVZ), leaving in 2003 to join the law firm Alston & Bird.

Walter, who held her current position at Finra's predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, has previously served in government as a general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as the deputy director of the SEC's corporation finance division.

The Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the SEC, typically holds a hearing on nominees before voting on whether to recommend their confirmation by the full Senate. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who chairs the committee, said in a statement Friday that he looks forward to considering the nominations "at the earliest opportunity."

-By Judith Burns, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6692; judith.burns@dowjones.com

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  03-28-08 1648ET
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