They’ve Got Next: State Attorneys General Practice Fresh Face Michelle Kallen

When Virginia’s legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment in January 2020, the country had at last crossed the constitutional threshold necessary to enshrine equal rights for women under the 28th Amendment. But that wasn’t the end of it. There was still more work to do, and Jenner & Block’s Michelle Kallen was among those pioneering the effort.

As Deputy Solicitor General— and eventually Solicitor General— in Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General, Kallen worked as lead counsel with counterparts in Illinois and Nevada to file a lawsuit to compel the National Archives and Records Administration to publish the amendment after the archivist refused to do so. It’s a requirement for recognizing the ERA under Article V of the Constitution, an unprecedented legal issue, she explained.

Some legal scholars may say “if you don’t like the Constitution, amend it,” but the challenges faced in the ongoing effort to get the ERA over the finish line call into question whether the Constitution can be meaningfully amended, Kallen said.

The battle is ongoing. Virginia withdrew from the litigation upon change of administration following the state’s 2021 gubernatorial election, but Nevada and Illinois are still in the fight, Kallen said.

Kallen, who joined Jenner & Block in September 2022, said she hopes to help companies navigate and avoid increasing state AG enforcement scrutiny as she builds her private practice.

The exposure to state AG enforcement that companies face is often greater than they realize, Kallen said. State attorneys general, especially when acting in concert, wield a lot of power, she said.

Novel and complex issues are what make Kallen tick.

“Navigating unprecedented areas of law is itself an expertise,” Kallen said. It requires finding persuasive analogies grounded in existing law that are reasonable “as a matter of first principles.”

“I’m a con-law nerd,” she added.

Kallen didn’t grow up with any lawyers in her family, but said that when she was a kid, she was told by the adults in her life that she was argumentative. “You’ll be a lawyer someday,” she said they told her.

Kallen eventually attended Vanderbilt University School of Law and clerked on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch. She worked for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett before joining the Virginia Office of Attorney General, where she routinely advocated and argued on behalf of the state.

When clients present amorphous, complex problems, Kallen is able to generate creative legal solutions, Jenner & Block partner Brian Hauck said.

Although she has only been at the firm for about six months, Hauck said his clients were already going to her with new issues that are “bigger and harder” than the matters he brought her in on.

“I think they trust her. They see that she is incredibly smart, creative, and cares about their interests and about them,” Hauck said.

Kallen is also accustomed to navigating difficult political landscapes, Hauck said.

After leaving the Virginia Solicitor General’s office and before joining Jenner & Block in September 2022, Kallen was special litigation counsel to the US House of Representatives, where she successfully defended the Select Committee on Jan. 6 against attempts to block congressional subpoenas issued to lawmakers and congressional staffers over the attack on the US Capitol.

Her work for the committee also included her efforts to obtain access to emails belonging to then-President Donald Trump’s former attorney John Eastman, including a subset of emails that the US District Court for the Southern District of California recently determined were subject to the crime-fraud exception.

Kallen handled matters related to charges against Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, preparing an amicus brief disputing some of Bannon’s arguments that the Select Committee was invalidly constituted.

Brittany Record, an associate at Latham & Watkins, said she first met Kallen at the Solicitor General’s office. While Kallen started at the House Office of General Counsel, Record was working with the Jan. 6 committee.

Record highlighted her creative legal problem solving. The matters that Kallen briefed and argued on behalf of the committee raised novel and important privilege issues, Record said.

She also said Kallen is a proactive mentor who goes out of her way to nominate colleagues for awards and opportunities.

She “has always been a great sounding board,” Record said.

Kallen also created the first all-female team in the Virginia Solicitor General’s office, Record said.

“She has consistently championed women’s issues and created a space for open dialogue and growth,” she said.

That doesn’t appear to have changed since Kallen entered private practice.

Ian Gershengorn, a partner at Jenner & Block who works with Kallen on appellate matters, called her “a leading example of diversity.”

She is “completely committed to mentoring younger attorneys,” he said.