President Clinton said Wednesday that he will nominate Utah lawyer Norman Johnson to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"This is a big coup for Utah and the West," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said when he heard of the nomination that he helped push. "All too often, there is a tendency to nominate people out of Wall Street."Hatch added that Johnson, 64, who works for the firm of Van Cott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy, "is the premier securities lawyer in Utah and is a fine and honorable man."
Johnson must still be confirmed by the Senate. Its Banking Committee - where Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is a member - will hold confirmation hearings.
Mary Jane Collipriest, Bennett's press secretary, said he looks forward to those hearings and feels Johnson "enjoys a fine reputation in his community and is highly respected as a securities lawyer both in Utah and nationally.
"This is particularly evident by the broad range and high level of the many endorsements he received from around the nation," she said.
Johnson received his law degree from the University of Utah. He worked as a trial attorney for the SEC in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles from 1965 to 1967. He also served as president of the Utah State Bar Association from 1985 to 1986.