Before joining the staff of the Commission, she was in private practice at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington, D.C., and New York, and also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

[5] In 2008 H. David Kotz, SEC inspector general, recommended that a disciplinary action be commenced against Thomsen due to her role in an insider trading investigation of prominent hedge fund Pequot Capital Management.

[7] Leaders of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) testified on February 4, 2009 before the United States House Committee on Financial Services subcommittee including Linda Thomsen SEC enforcement director, acting General Counsel Andy Vollmer, Andrew Donohue, Erik Sirri, and Lori Richards and Stephen Luparello of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

"[8] Thomsen and her colleagues testifying were accused by Representative Paul E. Kanjorski of "refusing to cooperate with a branch of government that could wipe their entire agency off the regulatory map, if necessary.

"[3] On February 9, 2009, five days after her appearance before the House subcommittee, and "after being blasted by critics for 'turning a blind eye' to tips that could have caught [Madoff] earlier,"[10] the SEC announced that Thomsen would resign from her position with no replacement identified[11] and return to the private sector.

The pair were recruited to work on white collar defense and government investigations and enforcement and increase the firm's financial regulatory practice.

[18][19] The New York Times identified the Senior Officer as Thomsen in an article on December 1, 2009, and that the former official was her former boss, Stephen Cutler of JPMorgan Chase, amid the bank's negotiations to buy Bear Stearns in March 2008.