Mary Jo White, the lawyer hired by Bank of America Corp.’s Kenneth D. Lewis, will bring credibility to her defense of the besieged chief executive officer, former colleagues said.
White, the chairwoman of the litigation department at New York’s Debevoise & Plimpton, spent 8 years as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan before entering private practice and representing companies including Morgan Stanley and Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. In February, she wooed former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to Debevoise, a 700-attorney firm where she’s built a strong white-collar litigation and corporate-investigations practice.
