Michael Shelby, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas for the past three and a half years, announced his resignation today to enter private practice.
The U.S. Attorney’s position in Houston has been a revolving door for years. It’s a big district with a ton of drug and immigration cases, and — despite the ongoing Enron prosecutions — has really never been a particularly active office in pursuing the juicier white collar criminal cases. Moreover, because of a myriad of conflicts, Mr. Shelby withdrew the local office early from investigating or prosecuting any of the Enron cases, which have been handled by a special Enron Task Force comprised of prosecutors primarily from New York City and Washington. Here’s hoping that the local bar committee will be able to come up with a candidate for the position who will be able to stay for a prolonged period, say a decade or so. My sense is that the assistant U.S. Attorneys in the local office would really appreciate the stability that such a long tenure tends to promote.