THE FAST TRACK: Clients’ advocate wins a better paycheck

While it’s no surprise government pros are often lured to the private sector by bigger paychecks, William Mohr says his jump from the New York attorney general’s office to an online brokerage was motivated mostly by altruism.

Mr. Mohr, 48, sees his new gig as Datek Online Holdings Corp.’s assistant general counsel as an opportunity to help a company drive the securities industry away from a dealer-dominated market.

“Basically, I’ll continue to work as an advocate for those market structures and processes that empower customers,” says Mr. Mohr.

Along with its online brokerage, Datek owns 85% of Island ECN Inc., the nation’s second-largest electronic marketplace — accounting for about one out of every eight trades of Nasdaq stocks. Through Island and other ECNs, retail investors can buy and sell stocks without paying brokers or Nasdaq market makers.

Island applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a stock exchange so it could compete directly with the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Mohr says a big part of his job will be sticking up for Datek as regulators and lawmakers try to develop legislation to restructure the markets.

“I want to make sure Datek has a shot at increasing our share of the marketplace and that the playing field is not tilted in the direction of dealer markets,” he says.

Of course, the new job is still a big departure for Mr. Mohr. At the attorney general’s office, he protected consumers from bad brokerages, including many of the boiler room operations that sprung up in the early 1990s. For 18 years, he worked in the office’s investor protection and securities bureau, becoming deputy chief in 1997.

Online trading became a bureau focus over the past few years. Last year Mr. Mohr helped draft a report on Internet brokerages that criticizes ads promising “easy riches” and dealt with the problems of power outages and customer trade interruptions that plagued many firms in early 1999.

Mr. Mohr says the report wasn’t used as part of enforcement actions against specific firms, but instead was released to help the industry develop a consensus on “best practices” for investors.

“Probably no state regulator knows more about online brokerages and related technology issues than Bill. He leaves big shoes to fill,” says Marc Beauchamp, a spokesman for the North American Securities Administrators Association. Mr. Mohr was a staff member at the Washington-based association for state and Canadian provincial securities administrators and was slated to become chairman of a group there that looks into electronic trading markets.

Mr. Mohr joined the attorney general’s office in 1982 as an assistant attorney general in the litigation bureau, then moved to the investor protection and securities bureau. In 1990 he was named its chief of enforcement.

An avid hiker and bicyclist, Mr. Mohr says,”I’m pushing 48?, so I try to keep myself in shape. I’m no couch potato.”