With Loretta E. Lynch sworn in as the new attorney general, we can look back at the legacy of Eric H. Holder Jr., who had the third-longest term in that office in American history. In the area of white-collar crime, the reaction to his leadership of the Justice Department has been mixed, with questions raised about whether too much emphasis was put on penalizing organizations at the expense of pursuing cases against individuals.

Any assessment of Mr. Holder’s tenure begins — and for many probably ends — with the response to the financial crisis. When he took charge of the Justice Department in early 2009, the full effects of the crisis were hitting the economy and hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts were being funneled to leading financial institutions.

Like the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s and the accounting frauds that led to the demise of corporate giants like Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s, the expectation was that a wave of prosecutions would ensue. Yet the wait continues with no prominent criminal cases filed against executives.

Soon before leaving office, Mr. Holder gave federal prosecutors a 90-day deadline to pursue civil or criminal charges against individuals involved in the packaging of securities backed by subprime mortgages that faltered starting in 2007. It is unlikely that any significant criminal prosecutions will emerge because any evidence of misconduct is probably stale by now, and civil lawsuits can result only in financial penalties that may be paid by companies on behalf of executives.