The US Attorney's Office for Northern California is being gutted - perhaps on orders from Washington, perhaps just because of greener fields in Silicon Valley lawfirms - and the stock options backdating investigations will more than likely grind to a halt as a result.

We noted last week that Kevin Ryan is stepping down as US Attorney for the district, even as Attorneys across the country and most especially in California have been dismissed by the federal Justice Department.

Today, the San Francisco Reporter - the city's (er, City's, as the old Examiner had it) legal newspaper - reports that Christopher Steskal, the point man in the investigation of Steve Jobs and Apple as well as Brocade, is leaving government service to lead the white collar practice at Fenwick & West (press release).

"It would be hard to understand how this couldn't have an effect on that investigation, when the lead prosecutor, or co-prosecutor, is going to leave in the middle of the investigation," said Thomas Carlucci, a partner at Foley & Lardner who represents former Apple in-house lawyer Wendy Howell, a potential target of the probe.

Ryan and Steskal aren't the only ones leaving. Steskal's co-prosecutor, Eumi Choi, is also shopping herself to white-collar defense firms, the paper says, and dozens of white-collar cases are being left in limbo. A spokeperson for Ryan assures, though, that new prosecutors are being hired to pick up the pieces.

Does it seem strange that a federal prosecutor would leave in the middle of the biggest white-collar investigation in years? Just when Washington is performing a purge of its Attorneys?

There's yet one more odd wrinkle: Fenwick partner Dennis DeBroeck is married to one Nancy Heinen, the Apple ex-lawyer who allegedly created false documents to back up a backdated grant to Jobs.

"I learned that bit of information a little bit later," he said, and immediately contacted the ethics officer of the San Francisco U.S. attorney's office.
"What we did was contact D.C. and got a written opinion from them, and I'm transitioning the case," he said. "I'm not making any substantive decisions regarding that case."

And, yes, Fenwick is one of Apple's outside counsels.