Maryland Politics

Montgomery County’s top lawyer, Leon Rodriguez, is stepping down to become chief of staff in the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Rodriguez, who has been Montgomery County attorney since 2007, told his staff of the move Monday. He starts the job Jan. 19, at a time when the division is rebuilding after a mass exodus of attorneys during the Bush administration. Turnover was about 70 percent, he said.

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He is being brought on by the new chief of the civil rights division, Tom Perez, a former Montgomery County Council member who was also briefly Rodriguez’s boss when the two worked in the civil rights division’s criminal section during the Clinton administration.