Prosecutors these days could use a smidge more humility, according to Zachary Carter.

He should know. He was one for many years, and now he faces them from the other side.

Mr. Carter, the former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, and now a partner at Dorsey & Whitney defending the same types of cases he used to prosecute, told The New York Sun yesterday: “Self-doubt at all levels of government seems to have gone out of fashion.”

Admitting up front that “where you stand can depend on where you sit,” Mr. Carter said, nevertheless in his day, there was a tad more humility, not only on his part but from his colleagues, too.

“[We] former prosecutors think of ourselves as having a healthy amount of self doubt,” he said. “For a prosecutor, a certain amount of self-doubt is an asset.”

He said that during his term as U.S. attorney from 1993 to 1999, “I always valued the services of the defense counsel.

“I always appreciated that in the investigation of alleged fraud in business it is always possible that you would come to an unfounded conclusion based on circumstantial evidence,” he said.

“There were times when they filled in the gaps of knowledge, in areas we didn’t know,” he said, and he invited them in for consultations. But there were also times when the defense lawyers “just confirmed our view” that the guy was guilty as all get out – a conclusion that would not prove happy at the 640-lawyer global mega-firm where he now works.

“I was always interested in getting it right,” he said, “and still am.”

One of the things Mr. Carter had to adjust to after a government-salaried pubic service job was the difference in the size of his office – the new one is a lot smaller.

“The one in Brooklyn was four or five times big as this,” he said, sweeping his arm over a 10-by-15-foot space filled with pictures of his family.

“And it had a panoramic view of the harbor from Staten Island to the Brooklyn Bridge,” he said.

The 18th floor of the Dorsey & Whitney’s three- floor Manhattan headquarters has a sliver of a view of the East River, squeezed by 46th Street.

Another adjustment: the types of cases. In Brooklyn, he handled such criminal cases as the assault on Abner Louima, the murder of Yankee Rosenbaum, enforced servitude – “slavery, that’s what it was and that’s how we prosecuted it” – gang assaults and organized crime.

And philosophy: “I find it very comfortable representing individuals and companies under investigation for alleged business crimes,” he said.

“This is a different phase of my professional life,” he said. “I enjoy the variety here, and have some representations that offer some real challenges.”