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According to a report released earlier this month by the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, 2009 saw significant increases in virtually all of the metrics by which Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement is measured.

Criminal charges related to Commission investigations were up 43 percent, which led the report’s authors to conclude that collaboration between the SEC and criminal prosecutors is “stronger than ever.” The number of defendants charged jumped 58 percent, while the number of actions filed increased by 38 percent. Disgorgement ordered during FY2009 soared to $2.09 billion from $774 million in FY2008. Other monetary penalties climbed to $345 million from $256 million just one year before.

In fact, one of the only areas that was down from last year was the percentage of cases settled, which fell from 35 in 2008 to 24 in 2009 – indicating a new willingness at the SEC to see cases through to final judgment. This is a key change, and one that won’t go unnoticed in boardrooms across Corporate America.

Given all that we’ve heard from SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami, these results should come as no surprise. Since Day One of the Schapiro Era, the Commission has been hard at work dispelling the perception that this SEC is the same agency that was often seen as asleep at the switch in recent years. If one thing is certain, 2009’s rulemaking and enforcement activity put that notion to rest.

When such influential voices as The New York Times’ Floyd Norris are noting how quickly the SEC has evolved from an agency that “might not [have] survive[d] a regulatory restructuring” to one that now looks “safe and even effective,” there’s little doubt that we can expect similarly aggressive reform and enforcement efforts in 2010 and beyond.

This is indeed a revitalized market watchdog – and public companies now have an opportunity to react accordingly.

Michael W. Robinson is a Senior Vice President and Chair of the Corporate Practice at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation's top crisis communications firm. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog.  Connect with Levick on Twitter: @levick.