Three years after leaving Morrison & Foerster, Tony West has become third-in-command at the U.S. Justice Department, where he oversees a broad array of legal issues from antitrust and civil rights to the environment — including the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case.

Banking on his earlier leadership of the Civil Division, the largest litigating component at Main Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. turned to West in February to fill a key front-office post: acting associate attorney general.