Under Siege at the CFTC

When Peter Y. Malyshev was a graduate student with a part-time job at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2001, he'd walk into the red-brick building near Washington's Dupont Circle and find the lobby almost deserted.

Now a lawyer at Winston & Strawn, with Goldman Sachs (GS) among his clients, Malyshev says he's more likely these days to encounter a small regiment of people lining up to get into meetings where they hope to influence the biggest rewrite of Wall Street rules since the 1930s. At times the line of lawyers, bank executives, and hedge fund managers stretches out the door of the small waiting room in the commission's black marble lobby.