Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias hired a Biden-era Justice Department lawyer to join his firm as it looks to capitalize on jabs from President Donald Trump.
Elias Law Group is onboarding Katie Chamblee-Ryan, she announced Monday on her LinkedIn page. Chamblee-Ryan left DOJ’s civil rights division less than two weeks ago after a nearly four-year stint.
“If you want to work for a law firm that will never bow down to Trump or stay silent when he attacks the legal system, we are hiring,” Elias said in Sunday post on the networking site. Trump called Elias a “radical” and singled him out in a recent executive order targeting law firms.
Chamblee-Ryan will join as of counsel in the litigation group, Elias Law Group confirmed. She was the lead attorney in DOJ’s case against Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Chamblee-Ryan also was lead attorney in DOJ’s investigation of unlawful conduct within the Lexington Police Department in Mississippi, according to her LinkedIn page.
Trump in a March 21 memo directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue potential sanctions and disciplinary action against attorneys who bring “vexatious” litigation against the federal government.
“What the current Department leadership wants is for career employees to provide legal cover for tenuous and sometimes abusive positions, often in the face of clear contrary precedent,” Chamblee-Ryan said in her post. “And they secure it by openly punishing those who honestly tell them what the law does and does not allow.”
Elias said he plans to sue the Trump administration over a Tuesday executive order that would drastically narrow voting eligibility in federal elections.
“This will not stand,” Elias said in a Bluesky post. “We will sue.”
Elias, who served as counsel for the Harris-Walz presidential campaign, ran Perkins Coie’s political practice group before launching his own boutique in 2021. Perkins Coie was targeted earlier this month in an executive order.
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