Firm Suing Trump Hires DC Lawyer to Ex-FBI Official Lisa Page

A New York litigation boutique suing the Trump administration for firing Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger has added a veteran national security lawyer known for representing another government official targeted by the president.

Amy Jeffress is joining Hecker Fink to co-lead its Washington, D.C., office, the firm said Tuesday. Jeffries, a Justice Department alum and former partner at Arnold & Porter, represented FBI lawyer Lisa Page in congressional investigations related to the Hillary Clinton email controversy and allegations of Russian interference in Donald Trump’s 2016 White House win.

She joins a firm that rebranded last year after prominent litigator Roberta Kaplan’s abrupt exit. Hecker Fink lawyers are representing Dellinger in the Feb. 10 lawsuit challenging his dismissal as the head of an independent agency that investigates government worker whistleblower reports.

Jeffress isn’t involved in the Dellinger case, she said, and was not part of the Arnold & Porter team said to be advising two Democrats axed by Trump from their roles on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. She and partner Sean Hecker declined to say whether the firm is advising other former government officials swept up in the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul various agencies.

Hecker Fink has grown to 70-plus lawyers over eight years, representing Major League Baseball, New York Life Insurance Company, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, among other clients.

“What we’ve seen increasingly is sophisticated consumers of legal services willing to hire boutique firms that historically they would have only looked to big firms to do,” Hecker said in an interview.

Jeffress co-led Arnold & Porter’s white collar defense and investigations practice. She previously worked in the Justice Department for 18 years, including stretches as national security counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder and attache to the US embassy in London.

She advised Page after the former FBI lawyer landed at the center of Republican accusations of political bias against Trump at the federal law enforcement agency. The attacks—including from Trump—ratcheted up after text messages between Page and FBI special agent Peter Strozk were made public.

Jeffress also has advised the UAE and government contractor Raytheon, according to court records. She said she jumped at the chance to help the firm build a white collar practice in the nation’s capital.

“We have a D.C. office that is growing and the firm has a strong white collar practice, but that practice is more based in New York,” Jeffress said. “A white collar practice should also be represented in Washington, given all of the issues here.”

Hecker Fink is looking to turn the page on the controversy surrounding Kaplan’s departure in June. Kaplan, who represented New York writer E. Jean Carroll in her $88 million defamation suits against Trump, reportedly exited amid complaints about her treatment of colleagues.