Subhead: Michelle Henry helped convict a former AG. Now, she will be running that powerful office

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... Now, more than half a decade later, Michelle Henry is poised to become the officer she once sent to prison [Kathleen Kane.] Currently the state’s first deputy attorney general, she will automatically assume the top job when her boss, Josh Shapiro, is sworn in as governor on Jan. 17.

When she takes over as acting attorney general, she’ll have ultimate oversight of a sprawling, immensely powerful office with a $114 million budget and hundreds of prosecutors, investigators and other staff ranging across the state.

Mr. Shapiro, who had no prosecutorial experience when he was elected in 2016, won praise for hiring her as his top deputy — not only because she became the first woman to hold the post, but also because he had offset his own lack of experience with one of the most formidable prosecutors in the state. A year after taking the job, Ms. Henry was named a fellow in the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers.

“That’s not something you apply for. You have to be invited into that,” Mr. Steele said. “That speaks volumes about her skills as a trial lawyer.”

Far from a hard-bitten agent of the law, however, Ms. Henry’s colleagues praise her as a born leader whose tireless work ethic and innate skill at forging connections with people make them want to follow her — be they colleagues or members of a jury.