Beth Ann Wilkinson was a star partner in the big Washington office of Latham & Watkins in 2006, when she took a gamble and joined Fannie Mae as general counsel. At the time, the mortgage company was trying to dig itself out of an $11 billion accounting scandal.

At the time, Ms. Wilkinson knew nothing about the mortgage-backed securities at the core of Fannie Mae's business.

"I think they were looking for someone who was willing to exercise their judgment and have a good relationship with the regulators," she said then. "And hopefully have a little more humble attitude about the company and its place."

But the effort to turn around Fannie has taken a radical, indeed humbling turn: The federal government has seized control of the company and its sibling, Freddie Mac.

It is unclear whether Wilkinson will remain with Fannie, or perhaps return to Latham, where she was co-chair of the firm's white-collar and government investigations practice.

If she stays, there will be plenty of challenges.

The government bailout will result in huge losses for the shareholders of both Fannie and Freddie, and class-action lawyers are already preparing litigation.

"We have already been contacted over the last few weeks by several pension fund clients asking us to advise them with respect to their rights vis-à-vis these two companies," says Jerry Silk of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman in New York.

Silk, for one, says one order of business for Fannie's managers would be to release the findings of Morgan Stanley, which was hired by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to look at the books of the two companies before the takeover.

With lawyers like Silk contemplating lawsuits, Wilkinson's vast experience as a trial lawyer should come in handy.