Eric S. Dreiband is returning to Jones Day from the Justice Department, becoming the latest in a string of lawyers to be rehired there after serving in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Dreiband, who was an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, will be a partner in the labor and employment and government regulations practices, Jones Day said in a statement Thursday. The firm credited him for opposing “unlawful Covid-19-related civil liberty restrictions” while at Justice.
In returning to Jones Day he follows Chad Mizelle, who was acting Department of Homeland Security general counsel, former White House Counsel Don McGahn and Solicitor General Noel Francisco.
The rehirings at the 10th largest firm in the U.S. by revenue, based on AmLaw data, have not been without controversy. The People’s Parity Project, a group of law students and new attorneys, said in November that Trump administration lawyers shouldn’t get jobs at big firms and universities. The group specifically mentioned Francisco.
While at Justice, Dreiband charged the highest number of hate crimes cases in two decades, resolved cases involving racial discrimination in employment, and brought more than 700 human trafficking cases, the department said in a Jan. 7 statement.
Civil and human rights officials had criticized Dreiband’s selection for the Justice post in part because they said he had spent most of his career defending corporations accused of employment discrimination.
Prior to his Justice Department stint between 2018 and 2021, Dreiband served as general counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
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