Legal Washington was already bubbling with talk of a rift between Attorney General Eric Holder and his deputy, David Ogden, when a fleeting moment during a public ceremony in September touched off speculation that the department’s No. 2 might be on his way out.

At former Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s official portrait unveiling in the Great Hall, Holder skipped over Ogden as he acknowledged various current and former Justice Department officials, including ex-Attorneys General Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh and William Barr. By the time Holder realized his mistake and circled back to Ogden, he’d left the impression his deputy was an afterthought. Ogden was offended, according to Justice officials.

On Thursday the Justice Department announced that Ogden, 56, is resigning effective Feb. 5. He will return to Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, where he was co-chair of the government and regulatory litigation practice group. Ogden’s top aide, Kathryn Ruemmler, will move to the White House counsel’s office as a deputy, according to current and former Justice officials.

“David Ogden has been an invaluable leader for the Department of Justice and for this Administration,” Holder said in a statement.  ”I am sorry to see him go, and I thank him for his service to the Department and to the nation.”

Ogden’s problems were many, say people familiar with Justice Department operations. Picked for the job by the White House, he didn’t mesh well with Holder and his close-knit group of aides.

Although he had extensive DOJ management experience during the Clinton administration, as chief of staff to then-AG Janet Reno and head of the Civil Division, Ogden didn’t have a deep background in criminal law or national security, which made it hard for him to win credibility with prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, say people with knowledge of DOJ operations.

Ogden’s comfort zone appeared to be in civil matters. But that led him to make frequent incursions onto the turf of his friend, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, who oversees the Civil Division. Thus Ogden lost the support of an important ally with close White House connections, the people say.

The DAG is responsible for day-to-day management of the 110,000-employee Justice Department. Ogden’s command of civil law was initially thought to complement Holder’s experience as a prosecutor and as a U.S. Attorney. But that didn’t bear out.

Holder and Ogden appeared to have different notions of the deputy’s role, said Jamie Gorelick, a former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration and a partner at Wilmer.

Gorelick compared the situation to her own experience as a deputy under Reno. At first, Reno asked her to manage the department and leave the policy work to Reno, Gorelick said. Later, Reno asked to be more involved with management decisions and at an earlier stage.

Gorelick said it was tough to make that pledge, which was one reason she left the department. Holder succeeded her as Reno’s deputy and appears now, as Attorney General, also to want to be involved with matters early, Gorelick said.

“I think Eric has found himself more interested in the second model than the first,” Gorelick said. Ogden and Holder “are extremely talented, thoughtful people. But making sure that you and your boss are aligned is tough” in such a horizontal department, she added.

Ogden had served as co-chair of the Justice Department transition team for the incoming Obama administration and was friends with Jenner & Block partner Perrelli, a former Harvard Law School classmate of Barack Obama who raised more than $500,000 for the presidential campaign. Perrelli was named the department’s number three official.

In a statement, Ogden said he had taken the deputy position with the intention of returning to his private practice once he had helped the department repair its image, which was tarnished during the Bush administration, and restore its traditional law enforcement missions. Ogden has an 11-month-old daughter, Natalie, who was born the day Obama nominated him for deputy post.

“The Department today is on the path we first set out over a year ago,” Ogden said, pointing to several initiatives, including task forces to combat financial crime and health care fraud, and an aggressive strategy to dismantle international criminal organizations and Mexican cartels.

“The Department is in good hands, and I feel I can now return to the private practice I have missed these thirteen months,” Ogden said.

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said in a statement Ogden was a strong partner in national security and criminal investigative programs.

“This year has been particularly significant with a steady stream of important cases across the board, from terrorism and espionage to international organized crime, public corruption, financial crimes, and health care fraud,” Pistole said. “We at the FBI are grateful to David for his leadership, his partnership, and his support. We will miss him, and wish him the very best.”

Joe Palazzolo contributed to this report.