Paul Atkins served as a Commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from August 2002 to August 2008. According to his bio, his career had "focused on the financial services industry and services regulation" before his appointment, where he “assisted financial services firms in improving their compliance with SEC regulations.”

After leaving the SEC, Atkins founded Patomak Global Partners, where he led "client work for financial services firms regarding an array of matters, including domestic financial services regulatory issues, new financial products, business strategy, and corporate governance." 

Concerningly, Atkins blamed the U.S. government for the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX—“one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history” for which Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison—after Patomak Global Partners advised FTX’s board and lobbied for the company. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, has asked Atkins to “explain his knowledge of the company’s mismanagement” ahead of his nomination hearing.

Atkins’ Patomak bio also discloses Atkins "has led industry efforts to develop best practices for digital asset issuances and trading platforms as co-chair of the [Chamber of Digital Commerce’s] Token Alliance." As of November 2024, he sat on the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s board of advisors with former Trump CFPB director Mick Mulvaney and billionaire and founder of crypto firm Bloq, Matthew Roszak. 

In November 2022, Atkins was selected to serve on an advisory council at the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity. At the time, Atkins said, "In my time at the SEC, I advocated for transparency, consistency, and cost-benefit analyses to facilitate a competitive, pro-growth market for the American people, and I continue to do so in the private sector." 

In 2021, Atkins discussed his radical free-market philosophy while moderating a Federalist Society panel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of right-wing economist Milton Friedman’s article titled “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” which helped usher in the “greed is good” era of capitalism. During the panel, Atkins called Friedman’s article “very important” and said of Friedman, “there is no better ambassador of free markets and free enterprise than Milton,” while enthusiastically recommending video clips of Friedman.