John W. White

John W. White is a partner in Cravath’s Corporate Department and serves as Co-Chair of its Corporate Governance and Board Advisory practice. From 2006 through 2008, he served as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees disclosure and reporting by public companies in the United States. While on the SEC staff,  Mr. White led the Division through one of the most significant and prolific rulemaking periods in its history, including the Commission’s adoption of final rules addressing executive compensation disclosure, Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404’s internal control requirements, internet access to proxy materials, oil and gas disclosure, use of interactive data in financial reporting, shareholder proposals relating to the election of directors, private offerings, and capital raising and reporting by smaller public companies, as well as the Commission’s issuance of guidance regarding the use of corporate websites. International initiatives included acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by foreign private issuers, the proposed roadmap for use of IFRS by U.S. issuers and modernizing the Commission’s rules on cross-border tender offers and deregistration and exemption from registration of foreign issuers, as well as revisions to the public reporting regime for foreign private issuers.


During his over 25 years as a partner at Cravath, Mr. White has focused his practice on representing public companies and their financial advisors on a wide variety of matters including corporate governance matters, public reporting obligations, public financings and restatements and other financial crises. Mr. White is a member of both the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), which advises the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and the Standing Advisory Group (SAG), which advises the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Practising Law Institute and a member of its Audit Committee. Mr. White is a frequent speaker on corporate governance and the securities laws. He served three years on the New York Stock Exchange’s Legal Advisory Committee, four years as Chairman of the Securities Regulation Institute and five years as Co-chair of PLI’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation.