Tony West, No. 3 official at Justice Department, is stepping down

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that Tony West, a San Francisco lawyer who has been the No. 3 official in the Justice Department for the last two years, is stepping down.

West’s resignation adds to a leadership vacuum in the Justice Department, where some jobs have gone vacant because of difficulty in winning Senate confirmation and others have opened up as top lawyers leave for private practice.

On Tuesday, Jeff Knox, who has headed the criminal division’s fraud section, announced he would join a Washington law firm.

Even Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected by some to leave by the end of the year. If Republicans win control of the Senate in November, it may be difficult to confirm a replacement, leading to the possibility of an acting attorney general for the two remaining years of Obama’s term.

As associate attorney general, West was in charge of the civil division, including civil rights, environmental enforcement and other responsibilities. He has led an aggressive push to fine banks for financial fraud, an issue that the Justice Department had largely ducked until he took over.

He was also instrumental in the department’s decision not to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act, leading to a landmark Supreme Court decision last year striking down a key provision of the act as unconstitutional discrimination against gay couples.

West, who did not announce where he is going, was a partner in the San Francisco law firm Morrison & Foerster before joining the Justice Department in 2009. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the state Assembly.

His sister-in-law is California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.