According to the Los Angeles Times, the leading candidate to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy is Mark Gitenstein, a corporate lobbyist and ex-staffer to Vice President Joe Biden:

The leading candidate to head the Justice Department office that oversees legal policy and judicial nominations recently has been a lobbyist for several business clients, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and would require a waiver from the Obama administration’s recently imposed ethics rules.

…

“It’s all but a done deal,” said [one] Senate official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of pending White House nominations. “He’s already placing people there, which he would not be able to do it if he were not the guy taking over there.”

The Office of Legal Policy is an important, but small office in the Justice Department that coordinates judicial appointments and oversees the development of Departmental policy through important policy analysis.

Gitenstein has lobbied for a variety of corporate clients and on a number of pieces of legislation. Most notably, Gitenstein was the lead for the Chamber of Commerce on its tort reform effort in 2005.

Below is a table of Gitenstein’s clients and the issues that he was paid to lobby on:

*These bills are from the 109th Congress **These bills are from the 110th Congress