After three years of more or less doing nothing, Jay Clayton was unusually busy in his last few months as Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. A cynic might suggest that, having failed to get the promotion and transfer he sought within government, he ought to use his position to butter up potential future clients and employers with an orgy of ill-advised deregulation and slaps on the wrist. Well, Clayton has gone to his reward, and it’s this: Making sure there are no future headlines about anyone at Apollo Global Management relying too heavily on sex criminals for tax advice.

Apollo Global Management Inc. has appointed former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to the newly created role of lead independent director on its board, the latest step in a sweeping overhaul of corporate governance at the investment firm….

Mr. Clayton said he looks forward to serving public investors in the role, adding that he supports Apollo’s transition to “a more shareholder-oriented governance model.”

“Over the last two decades Apollo has been at the forefront of the allocation of capital,” he said. “Our markets are going to change, and they want to be part of that.” He is slated to assume his role at the firm on March 1.

Now that a certain someone’s promised to be on his best behavior, and anyway won’t be having much to do with the firm anymore going forward because he wasn’t in the past, keeping those tabs is apparently not as taxing a job as it might initially appear.

Mr. Clayton, who stepped down from his role at the SEC in December, will also return to Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he was a partner before entering government…. Mr. Clayton also plans to return as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Apollo Names Ex-SEC Chairman Jay Clayton as Lead Independent Director [WSJ]