Reno Picks Carter Officials, Clinton Friend as Top Aides

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Friday announced her nominations for the Justice Department’s high command, drawing on two veterans of the Jimmy Carter Administration and a longtime associate of the First Family.

Philip B. Heymann, a Harvard Law School professor who headed the department’s criminal division from 1978 to 1981 and helped organize the Watergate prosecution force, was named to the No. 2 post of deputy attorney general.

The Administration’s choice for the No. 3 post of associate attorney general was Webster L. Hubbell, a former mayor of Little Rock, Ark., ex-chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and managing partner of the Little Rock law firm where First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton practiced.

Drew S. Days III, a Yale Law School professor who headed the department’s civil rights division from 1977 through 1980, was chosen as solicitor general, the government’s advocate in the Supreme Court.

The selection of Heymann and Days brings to the policy-making team individuals with the federal experience lacked by Reno, who previously was state attorney in Dade County, Fla.

Hubbell, 45, one of President Clinton’s golf partners and the White House representative at the Justice Department in the two months before Reno took office, was the only one of the nominees to indicate that he might face some difficulty in the Senate confirmation process.

“I have the feeling it’s not going to be the easiest . . ,” he told department employees after Reno announced his selection and praised him as “one of the great men in America.”

Hubbell later told reporters that “several senators said they wanted to talk with me about what I’ve been doing here for the past 2 1/2 months,” referring to suggestions that his close ties to the President might make it difficult for him to resist any efforts by the White House to influence the department.

He disputed the possibility of a conflict, pointing out that he had disagreed with Hillary Clinton when they were practicing law together and that he and the President frequently disagreed when he was mayor of Little Rock and Clinton was governor of Arkansas.

Heymann, 60, headed the Center for Criminal Justice at Harvard, managing projects designed to improve the criminal justice systems of countries such as Guatemala, Colombia, South Africa and Russia. He served in the solicitor general’s office from 1961 to 1965.

In addition to his Watergate prosecution work, Heymann demonstrated his willingness to confront controversy when he served as the National Football League’s independent counsel, investigating allegations of sexual harassment by the members of the New England Patriots.

Days, 51, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras for two years, ending in 1969. He then served as a trial lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, involved in cases of school desegregation, police misconduct and employment discrimination.

Reno also said she had selected Carl Stern, the veteran NBC legal correspondent, to head the office of public affairs and serve as her chief spokesman.