Big Law’s Government Hire Surge Under Trump Tests Profit Pools

Big Law has doubled its hiring of federal government attorneys, and the exodus under President Donald Trump tests whether firms can profitably add so many lawyers who lack their own clients.

The country’s 200 largest law firms hired more than 1,100 attorneys joining from federal agencies and the White House last year, topping the more than 500 government hires a year earlier, a Bloomberg Law analysis found. The number was 63% higher than in 2021, the last opening year of a new presidential administration, according to the analysis of data compiled by hiring intelligence company Firm Prospects.

Trump’s reductions in the federal work force, coupled with voluntary exits of career lawyers who didn’t want to work for the president, boosted the hiring activity. The surge risks a dilution of partner profit pools as managing partners wait for new hires to draw customers and tap revenue from existing firm clients.

“These firms are betting that government experience translates into revenue over time, even if not immediately,” said Adam Oliver, president of Firm Prospects.

The financial risk helps explain why the biggest jump in hiring was for counsel, who don’t receive partner profit shares, Oliver said. Counsel recruitment tripled over the year, while partner hires doubled, Firm Prospects data show.

Holland & Knight, one of the five most prolific recruiters of government lawyers last year, can “open doors for new partners with existing clients, without them even having to go to market,” said Robert Friedman, who leads the firm’s work in international trade, national security and defense.

“It’s true they don’t come in with large books of business the way laterals do,” Friedman said. “But they have a unique set of skills that allows us to create opportunities for them.”

Oliver said firms can pitch clients on the lawyers’ experience and government connections.

“The value is really the ability to win business the firm might not have won before,” he said. “And these firms have the financial depth to be patient while that plays out.”

Firm Hires

The Big Law firms that hired most aggressively came in two categories—those with the most prominent government-facing practices, and those that are the most profitable, said Lauren Drake, managing partner of recruiter Macrae’s Washington office.

WilmerHale and Covington & Burling, known in Washington for representing clients with matters before government agencies, topped the list, based on the data collected from firm websites and press releases. Latham & Watkins, the second-largest law operator in the world by revenue, followed.

Holland & Knight and Jenner & Block rounded out the top five.

Natasha Vij Greiner joined WilmerHale as chair of the investment management practice after overseeing that division at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Susan Musser jumped to the firm after serving as acting director of the bureau of competition at the Federal Trade Commission.

Michael Granston, who led the commercial litigation branch of the Justice Department’s civil division, rejoined Covington in September to lead the firm’s False Claims Act Investigations work. Wilmer, Covington, Latham and Jenner didn’t comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.

While the firms ramped up hiring in early 2025, by September they were “crying uncle” as headhunters reached out, Drake said. “That left some candidates out in the cold, unfortunately,” she said.

“The firms were savvy,” Drake said. “I don’t think any single firm overextended itself.”

Uncertain Market

Thomas Windom, a former federal prosecutor who aided former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, found the job environment tough after he was fired last January as part of the Justice Department’s mass purge of lawyers.

“Numbers-wise, it was a more difficult climate for the applicant-attorneys and a great market for the firms,” Windom said.

Bloomberg Law has reported that by September of last year, a third of Justice Department senior career leaders had vacated their positions, both voluntarily and involuntarily.

Windom this year launched a law firm with Smith and other lawyers who had investigated or prosecuted Trump because of their overlap in white collar experience, he said. That was despite offers from other law firms, Windom said.

“The priorities that the administration had signaled didn’t align with the skill sets of many of the white-collar prosecutors that were coming out of government,” Windom said. “For anybody who had done a bunch of cases involving white-collar crime or corruption, the market was uncertain.”