What a difference one presidential term makes.
Lawyers who worked in President Donald Trump’s first administration had a tougher time finding jobs than those cycling out of government roles in the past. In Trump 2.0, Big Law firms in particular are much more willing to extend the welcome mat.
Two firms—Kirkland & Ellis and Simpson Thacher—hired Attorney General Pam Bondi’s old lobbying shop Ballard Partners earlier this year as the president ramped up attacks on Big Law.
Skadden and Davis Polk retained Miller Strategies for “government relations,” federal lobbying disclosures show. Stefan Passantino, the former White House ethics counsel who came under fire for advising key figures in the House probe of the Capitol attack, was part of the Miller team working for the firms.
“When the power levers in DC are held by Republicans, it’s obviously useful to have people who understand” those levers, said Charles Cogar, former chief of staff to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Cogar this month joined the lobbying team at Holland & Hart.
Here is a look at five of the top Trump-connected lawyers at Big Law firms in the president’s second term.
Brownstein: Evan Corcoran
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck hired former Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to, among other things, advise higher education clients on navigating the president’s crackdown.
He was part of a firm team that lobbied for Yale University and Tulane University, according to federal disclosures.
Corcoran is a veteran trial lawyer who represented Trump in investigations that led to two federal indictments during the Biden presidency—one over the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, another over allegations Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election.
He also represented Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who was found guilty of two criminal counts of contempt of contempt of Congress in 2022.
Corcoran’s time at Brownstein Hyatt was short. He launched his own firm in December, about nine months after he joined Brownstein.
Covington: Paul Ray
Paul Ray, a Trump administration and Heritage Foundation alumnus, joined Covington & Burling in May.
Ray was a key player in Trump’s deregulation efforts during the president’s first term, including in the White House’s budget office.
In 2019, he was tapped as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the agency within the White House Office of Management and Budget responsible for reviewing federal regulations.
“What I want to bring to the table is this robust confidence in the American people that President Trump very much has,” he said in his first interview after assuming leadership of the OIRA.
Ray joined Covington less than three months after Trump went after the firm in an executive memorandum. The president in February directed agencies to revoke security clearances for Covington partner Peter Koski, a lawyer for former Special Counsel Jack Smith, and to review any government contracts with the firm.
“From his positions in OIRA, Paul helped develop, craft, and defend some of the most important regulatory policies of the first Trump administration, and his expertise will be valuable to clients seeking to navigate regulatory policy today,” said Kim Breier, a co-chair of Covington’s public policy practice, in a statement announcing the hire.
WilmerHale: Marik String
Marik String, who worked on Trump’s transition team and as an adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, returned to WilmerHale six months after the president issued an executive order against the firm.
String has spent much of his legal career in and out of WilmerHale and the State Department. He was the agency’s acting legal adviser—a department-wide chief legal officer—for part of Trump’s first term.
The president targeted WilmerHale over its connection to Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mueller is another lawyer who called the firm home in between government service stints.
Wilmer won a court ruling striking down the order, which sought to bar the firm’s lawyers from entering government buildings and threatened its clients’ business with the federal government. The decision is on appeal.
Akin: Kelly Ann Shaw
A former White House trade adviser to Trump, Kelly Ann Shaw left Hogan Lovells for Akin’s lobbying and public policy practice in May. During the first Trump term, Shaw served as the top ranking international economic official in the White House.
Shaw’s move to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a Big Law firm with a busy DC lobbying practice, came during a busy time trade advisors. Trump has broken from predecessors by imposing stiff import restrictions for shipments from foreign countries. He’s also intervened in specific companies’ businesses, brokering a deal with Nvidia that allow it to sell H200 AI chips to China. The US will receive a cut of the revenues in exchange.
Shaw and Akin Gump colleagues have generated more than $400,000 in lobbying fees following her move, according to federal lobbying disclosures. She’s represented hedge fund Silver Point Capital and a trade association for the data center industry.
Cravath: Andrew Finch
Cravath Swaine & Moore, one of New York’s top White Shoe law firms, kicked off a busy year for Trump-affiliated lawyer hires with the addition of Andrew Finch to its litigation department.
Finch served as a high-ranking member of the Justice Department’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term. He joined Crvath in January from Paul Weiss.
Finch represented Uber Technologies in the government’s review of its $2.65 billion acquisition of competitor Postmates, and Spirit Airlines in its attempted $3.8 billion sale to JetBlue Airways Corp.
“Andrew’s extensive experience in and out of government will be invaluable to our clients as they navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment,” said Faiza Saeed, Cravath’s presiding partner, in an announcement about Finch’s hire.
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