Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton will appoint Steven Peikin, a former law firm partner, to become co-director of the agency's enforcement division, The Wall Street Journal reported May 26, citing people familiar with the matter.

Peikin currently heads the criminal defense and investigations group at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where Clayton previously worked, according to the report. Stephanie Avakian, who serves as the acting enforcement director, will co-lead the division.

Peikin will be forbidden to oversee any case related to clients of Sullivan & Cromwell including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which he represented during a Senate inquiry of the company's trading and warehousing of key manufacturing commodities, according to the report.

Peikin also represented Michael Coscia, the first U.S. trader criminally convicted of "spoofing," a scheme to trick other traders to change their prices by placing orders that one does not intend to fulfill. Coscia's case is awaiting the decision of a federal appeals court, according to the report.