Jose Saenz/Securities and Exchange CommissionInterns for the Securities and Exchange Commission, from left, Toyin Momoh, Jared Steller, Lauren Dies, Christopher Avellaneda, Seorim Hong and Neerav Shah.DealBook recently examined the lives of Wall Street interns, who spend their summers wrangling pitch books and trimming Excel spreadsheets. (And sometimes, blogging surreptitiously.)
But aspiring bankers aren't the only students doing grueling internships this summer.
About 200 miles south of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission has 384 interns apprenticing on the other side of the financial divide. Between semesters at some of the nation's top law, business and undergraduate schools, the S.E.C.'s interns are doing a 10-week crash course in Wall Street watchdogging.
Half of the students interning at the commission's Washington headquarters and regional offices this summer are business school students, and about 38 percent are law students, with undergraduates making up the balance. More than 10,000 students applied for the internships, which are unpaid.
DealBook interviewed six Washington-based S.E.C. interns by conference call about their summer at the commission so far. This is a condensed and edited version of that interview.
So, guys, why the S.E.C.?
Christopher Avellaneda, Harvard Law School: Especially during the last three years, the S.E.C. has played a major role in the way that Dodd-Frank is restructuring the economy. It seems like they're doing a lot of important work.
Lauren Dies, Washington University Law School (St. Louis): I work in the enforcement division, so I sit in on meetings where they talk about what kinds of cases we should be bringing, and if the remedies we're seeking are sufficient. That's been probably one of the most rewarding experiences.
Some of you worked at investment banks before going to law school. Has interning at the S.E.C. changed your views about Wall Street?
Seorim Hong, Rutgers School of Law – Newark: I'd have to say yes. The mission of the S.E.C. is that we want to protect investors. That's obviously the other side. Whereas before, it was about making money. [Ms. Hong previously worked at Citigroup.]
Jared Steller, Brooklyn Law School: I don't know if it's necessarily been a shift in perspective, but the experience on the regulatory side is invaluable for anyone, whether you want to stay on the public side or go into the private sector.
Ms. Hong: Can I add something? It's not just being at the S.E.C., but being at the S.E.C. this summer that made the difference for me, with Dodd-Frank and everything going on. Working on the actual rule-making side is where I wanted to be.
What does your typical day look like?
Mr. Avellaneda: I'm working in the general counsel's office, and I've been in meetings where we're working on strategy for how these rules are going to play out in the courts when they get challenged.
Ms. Hong: The rule-making side asked for my help in reading and reviewing some of these new rules. But I started eight weeks ago, and they have been working on these releases for a year. So I've been in some meetings, but they were almost at the end of the process.
Does it bother you to be working an unpaid internship when your friends are making big money in the private sector?
Nurav Shah, Brooklyn Law School/N.Y.U. Stern School: Obviously, it's a choice that has to be made. But one way to help with that is that law schools are making a real push to support public service. We all have — or at least, I have — a stipend.
Ms. Dies: My school didn't give me a stipend for the summer, so I had to take on more debt to be here. I have friends at big law firms and they tell me about the great lunches they went to, but at the same time, they're working until 11 o'clock at night doing document review, and the work they're doing isn't necessarily as substantial as what we do.
Toyin Momoh, Howard University School of Law: It's a humbling experience seeing your colleagues making money this summer. I just think this is a great experience — you're hands on, you're doing more things, you're not just pushing paper.
Do you plan to come back after graduation?
Ms. Hong: I honestly don't know whether I'm committed. It's a very hard decision to know that you could make X amount going into investment banking or X amount going into law. For me, that's not an easy question.
Mr. Shah: I was at Lehman, and my hours weren't great. But here, from what I can tell, they're working pretty hard. It's not as cushy a government job as we all thought going in. But I think the folks here are just as bright as the folks at Lehman, maybe brighter.
Ms. Dies: It was definitely the caliber of people that struck me. I sit in meetings with Robert Khuzami and Lorin Reisner four days a week, and they are just so brilliant. They genuinely care that they're getting the best results for investors as well as being fair. One day I would hope to be like them, as cheesy as that sounds.
For the interns who used to work in finance, do you miss anything about that world?
Ms. Hong: Getting paid! Having Seamless Web, where you can order lunch and dinner.
Mr. Shah: Luckily, the attorneys here have been pretty nice about that, taking us out to lunches. Probably not on the S.E.C., but probably on their own dime.
Mr. Steller: For sure on their own dime. (All laugh.)
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