Doug Emhoff, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s husband, plans to leave his role as a partner at law firm DLA Piper, a campaign spokeswoman told Bloomberg Law.
Emhoff will wind down his work and “sever all ties” with the firm before Harris and President-elect Joe Biden are sworn in on Jan. 20, the spokeswoman said. He has been on a leave of absence from the firm since August, when Biden named Harris as his running mate.
“Mr. Emhoff is working with the Biden-Harris transition team to develop the portfolio he will focus on to support the work of the administration,” she said.
The spokeswoman declined to say whether Emhoff’s role will include resuming his legal career.
Emhoff has worked primarily as a commercial and entertainment litigator for over three decades. DLA Piper’s federal lobbying clients including Qualcomm Inc., Comcast Corp., Raytheon Co. and the government of Afghanistan.
The president and vice president are not covered by the primary federal conflicts of interest law, and experts told Bloomberg Law that Emhoff’s job could theoretically be structured to limit ethics concerns. Still, the firm’s wide-ranging roster of legal and lobbying clients was near certain to pose questions about the appearance of conflicts they said.
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