Leslie Caldwell to leave Morgan Lewis for Justice Dept.

The Senate has unanimously confirmed Leslie Caldwell, a top white-collar defense lawyer at Center City's Morgan Lewis & Bockius L.L.P., as head of the Justice Department's criminal division, one of the nation's top law enforcement jobs.

Caldwell focused her practice at Morgan on internal corporate investigations and defense of companies in regulatory proceedings and criminal probes.

Before joining Morgan, Caldwell was a senior lawyer in the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft. There, she headed the government's investigation of Enron Corp., the energy-trading company whose collapse in 2001, in addition to roiling financial markets, cost its investors, many of them retirees, billions.

"In Leslie, the Department of Justice is gaining a dedicated leader who brings integrity and sound judgment to her work - qualities that she has applied in her dealings with our clients and colleagues," said Francis Milone, Morgan's chairman.

"Although the nature of Leslie's practice mandated that her work seldom become public, she successfully handled many complex and important investigations."

Caldwell, who received Senate confirmation on Thursday, took over in 2002 as head of the government's investigation of Enron, which eventually resulted in more than 30 convictions.

Her February confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee produced no fireworks and few probing questions, apart from a query by Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) on what the department could do to stop the spread of marijuana from states where it has been legalized. Caldwell said she had not been briefed on any discussions on the issue and thus could not offer guidance.

As head of the criminal division, Caldwell will supervise about 600 lawyers with responsibility for enforcing laws aimed at money laundering, drug trafficking, public corruption, and other criminal activities. The job can be a springboard for even broader government responsibility, as it was for Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, who became head of the criminal division and then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.