Eric Schneiderman takes over as New York Attorney General on January 1, and assumes a full caseload from his predecessor, New York Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo.  For Mr. Schneiderman and his newly-named team of deputies, the high-profile Ernst & Young case is only the beginning. 

Right behind E&Y is the state's long-running legal melodrama against Steven Rattner, the Quadrangle Group co-founder and former Obama administration car czar.  Mr. Rattner was accused last month of participating in a kickback scheme related to the state’s pension system.  Other cases include:  (i) the fraud case against former Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, in connection to the bank’s takeover of Merrill Lynch;  (ii) the case against the brokerage unit of Charles Schwab, for allegedly misleading customers about the safety of auction-rate securities;  (iii) the still-unresolved case lawsuit against Maurice Greenberg, former CEO of American International Group (that started in 2005).

    Schneiderman's Legal Team.   Mr. Scheiderman most recently served 6 terms as a Democratic state senator representing the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  Before that, he practiced corporate law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. On Wednesday, he announced his appointees for some of the office’s senior legal positions;  they include:

• Harlan Levy, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer at Boies Schiller & Flexner, will serve as first deputy attorney general;
• Karla Sanchez, a commercial litigator at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, will serve as executive deputy attorney general for economic justice.
• Barbara Underwood, a former federal prosecutor and U.S. deputy solicitor general, will serve as solicitor general.
• Many current staff members will remain after Cuomo leaves.

As for the Wall Street cases he inherits, Mr. Schneiderman says he has "worked and lived in that world."  He added, "I understand it, and to a certain extent that means I’m going to be harder to fool.  It also means that I understand the business, and I understand the overwhelming majority of the actors in financial services are good people just trying to make money for themselves and for their clients."   [NYPost, 12/23; NYT Dealbook, 12/22]