The Department of Justice has chosen Denis McInerney, a partner of Davis Polk & Wardwell, to serve as the agency’s new chief of fraud. He will replace Steven Tyrrell, who announced over the summer that he was retiring from the role to go into private practice.

In his new role, McInerney will oversee the work of 60 attorneys and 25 support personnel in a variety of subject areas, including corporate and securities fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, health care fraud, and procurement fraud.

At Davis Polk & Wardwell, McInerney is a partner in the Litigation Department, representing corporate and individual clients in grand jury and regulatory investigations, criminal and civil trials, internal investigations, and general civil litigation. From 1989 to 1994, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving as a deputy chief of the Criminal Division from 1993 to 1994. In 1994, he served as an associate independent Ccounsel in the Whitewater Investigation with Independent Counsel Robert Fiske.

McInerney has extensive trial experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney, including his service as Second Chair in the criminal trial of Arthur Andersen in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and as lead trial lawyer for the former chairman and chief executive officer of an investment bank who was tried on insider-trading charges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.