[JURIST] White House legal counsel Harriet Miers [official profile; JURIST news archive] resigned from her post Thursday effective January 31. Press Secretary Tony Snow gave no specific reason for her departure except to say that she has been working at the White House for six years. In a White House press briefing [transcript] he added:

Harriet is a very special person in this White House. She is beloved not only because she is a really good human being, she's an extraordinarily wonderful human being, but also somebody who is a very careful and scrupulous lawyer, a ferocious defender of the Constitution, and somebody who was also deeply loyal to the President, and just somebody who is a delight to work with. So it is one of these things where everybody really — it's very bittersweet, and you can get that from the tenure of the — tenor of her note. She has decided that it's time to move on. She and [White House Chief of Staff] Josh Bolten have had a series of conversations in recent days about this, and she made her decision yesterday.

Miers, formerly President Bush's personal lawyer and the first female president of the Texas State Bar Association, was Bush's first nominee [JURIST report] to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court in 2005.

Miers withdrew her nomination [letter, PDF] after intense scrutiny [JURIST report] by lawmakers and observers wary of her lack of judicial experience. AP has more.