DOJ Nominee Dellinger Earned $300,000 as Boies Schiller Partner

Former Boies Schiller Flexner partner Hampton Dellinger, who is President Biden’s nominee to be a top Justice Department adviser, earned about $300,000 per year with the firm, according to financial records.

Dellinger while at Boies Schiller represented Atrium Health, Strata Solar, and Net32, a dental supply business, according to a financial disclosure form released by the Office of Government Ethics. The clients are based in North Carolina, where Dellinger lost the 2008 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.

If confirmed, Dellinger would become assistant attorney general for legal counsel and head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy. The office serves as “the primary policy adviser” to the attorney general and deputy attorney general, the Justice website states.

Dellinger would hold the same post his father, Walter Dellinger, held for President Bill Clinton before becoming Clinton’s acting U.S. Solicitor General.

Dellinger left Boies Schiller last November after a seven-year run to start his own Durham, N.C.-based law firm. Dellinger promised to close that law office if and when he is confirmed, according to a separate ethics agreement.

Boies Schiller has been in disarray in recent years, with nearly 60 partners leaving in 2020, including some who had been groomed as future potential firm leaders.

According to the AmLaw rankings that cover fiscal year 2020, profits per equity partners at the firm exceeded $2.2 million. The firm last year unveiled a 10-tier banded partner compensation system.