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Lev Dassin, the former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is going into private practice. The career prosecutor will join Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP as a partner, the law firm announced ^[3] today.

Dassin was deputy to former U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, an appointee of President George W. Bush who stepped down in December. Dassin served as acting U.S. Attorney from January until August, when new U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was confirmed.

Dassin ran the Manhattan office during the most intense period of the financial industry crisis, overseeing fraud cases against Bernie Madoff and Marc Dreier and federal interests before the Chrysler and General Motors bankruptcy proceedings.

Dassin served as Deputy U.S. Attorney in 2008 and chief of the criminal division from  September 2005 to January 2008. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in SDNY from 1992 to 1998, leading the prosecution of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.