Beth Wilkinson, formerly general counsel for Fannie Mae, has joined the Washington office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner in the litigation department.

Wilkinson left the beleaguered Fannie Mae last September following the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie Mac. Before joining Fannie in 2006, Wilkinson was co-chair of the white collar crime practice group of Latham & Watkins, where she was a partner for seven years in the firm’s Washington D.C., office.

In previous years, Wilkinson was a prosecutor at the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1998. While there she served as special attorney to the U.S. attorney general and played a leading role prosecuting Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.