[JURIST] Eric Holder [professional profile], Deputy US Attorney General [archive materials] during the Clinton administration, has been asked and has agreed to serve as US Attorney General for the incoming administration of now President-elect Barack Obama, according to media reports citing unnamed sources late Tuesday. If officially nominated and if confirmed by the Senate, Holder would be the first African-American to lead the Justice Department. Holder led Obama's VP candidate selection team during the presidential campaign. He is a partner at Covington & Burling [firm website] in Washington DC.

Before becoming Deputy US Attorney General in 1997, Holder was an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and was later nominated by President Clinton to be United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. During his tenure as Deputy Attorney General, according to Holder's Covington profile,

the Department developed and issued its guidelines on the criminal prosecution of corporations (the so called "Holder Memorandum") and issued guidelines on the use of the False Claims Act in civil health care matters. A task force he created also developed the existing regulation concerning the appointment of special counsels to investigate allegations involving high-level federal officials. He began the Department's Children Exposed to Violence Initiative and made Department priorities enforcement efforts in health care fraud, computer crimes and software piracy.