WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, will face daunting challenges as the new head of the Justice Department, but those who know him say he's well-suited in temperament and experience to tackle the assignment.

Mr. Holder, who would be the first black attorney general if confirmed by the Senate, would be taking the helm of a department still recovering from charges of cronyism and partisan politicking, as well as debatable opinions about harsh interrogation techniques, electronic eavesdropping, habeas corpus and the laws of war.

Mr. Holder has made clear that he plans to steer the department away from the Bush administration's most controversial policies on terrorism, such as detaining terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yet he hasn't signaled how he would go about making those ambitious changes.

Similar to the president-elect who picked him, Mr. Holder is often described as having a calming effect on those around him -- a trait that could serve him well in smoothing over traditionally tense relations between the U.S. attorneys' field offices and the department's Washington headquarters.

The department's standing was hurt last year by revelations that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' aides had screened job applicants based on their political credentials and by allegations that they had pressured and fired Justice Department lawyers who were overseeing politically sensitive cases. Although his successor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, is credited with helping to restore the department's reputation, he was seen by many inside and outside the department as a short-timer who didn't have the influence to make more dramatic changes.

Mr. Holder, a former judge, U.S. attorney in Washington and deputy attorney general under former President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2000, understands how the Justice Department works, and he has learned the importance of retaining the department's independence from the White House, former Justice Department officials said.

"He'll be a very a constructive and steady force for a Department of Justice that is suffering from very low morale now," said Phil Heymann, Mr. Holder's predecessor as a deputy attorney general under Mr. Clinton.

Critics question whether Mr. Holder, as a former Clinton administration appointee who approved a pardon that sparked allegations of political payback, would represent true reform. The controversy over his decision to sign off on Mr. Clinton's 11th-hour pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich is virtually guaranteed to surface during his Senate confirmation hearings.