U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has appointed a new Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, reaching into the SEC for his selection.  Lorin Reisner, Deputy Director of Enforcement for the SEC will accept the position, continuing a long tradition of filling the criminal chief’s post with a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who has experience in private practice.  No formal announcement of the appointment has been made;  both the U.S. attorney’s office and the SEC declined comment. Mr. Reisner succeeds Richard Zabel, who recently was promoted to be Mr. Bharara’s deputy after Boyd Johnson III left for private practice.  In his new post for the Southern District of New York’s criminal division, Mr. Reisner will oversee prosecutors who handle financial cases, like the insider trading conviction of the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, as well matters like terrorism, public corruption and international narcotics.  The office covers criminal matters in Manhattan, the Bronx, and six counties north of the city. Prior Experience. Lorin Reisner leaves the SEC just 2 years of service, during which time he served as the deputy to Robert Khuzami, the Commission's Director of Enforcement and another former Southern District prosecutor. Prior to that, he had been a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, a title he had held since 1996.  While at Debevoise, Mr. Reisner had a substantial practice in regulatory and white-collar defense, as well as in general commercial litigation.  He also developed a major intellectual law practice. Mr. Reisner had served as an assistant United States attorney in the New York U.S. Attorneys Office from 1990 to 1994.  For part of that time, he worked for Mary Jo White.  He also worked with Ms. White at Debevoise.  Ms. White says Reisner is "a spectacular choice.  Wherever he has worked, he has been a star:  Hard working, high minded, fun to work with, one of the best lawyers of his generation.” For further details, refer to:   [DealBook, 11/22/11]