Donald Trump's choice to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is something of a rarity among the incoming president's economic team: He doesn't work at Goldman Sachs. But as a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, a law firm that for many decades has represented top Wall Street institutions, Jay Clayton has worked for Goldman Sachs, perhaps most notably as Goldman's attorney when the firm received $10 billion in bailout funding from the federal government during the 2008 financial crisis. He also has had a seat at the table at many major corporate mergers, including when an ailing Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in March 2008 at a fire-sale price.

Clayton would be the eighth person with a long background on Wall Street to take a top role in the Trump administration. The president-elect has so far picked three Goldman alumni to serve him, including his nominees for Treasury secretary (Steven Mnuchin), National Economic Council director (Gary Cohn) and chief strategist (Steve Bannon).

Probable Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Army Secretary Vincent Viola are also coming off long Wall Street careers. Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman chairs an economic-advisory panel. In addition, billionaire investor Carl Icahn serves as a special adviser in charge of interviewing candidates for regulatory agencies including the SEC.

In a statement, Trump called Clayton "a highly talented expert on many aspects of financial and regulatory law. We need to undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses, and restore oversight of the financial industry in a way that does not harm American workers."

As chairman of the SEC, Wall Street's top regulator, Clayton would replace Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor. Clayton's views on regulation aren't clear, but in a 2015 interview with Crain's, Sullivan & Cromwell Chairman H. Rodgin Cohen observed that "Enforcement has become so incredibly ramped up, the penalties so much more severe and the ground rules less and less clear."

"We will carefully monitor our financial sector," Clayton said in a statement, "as we set policy that encourages American companies to do what they do best: create jobs."

Trump has yet to appoint a chief of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, another important Wall Street regulator, and has two vacancies left to fill on the Federal Reserve board of governors.