Biglaw, Federal Government, U.S. Attorneys Offices

Another High-Profile Hire For Munger Tolles

Another prominent government lawyer is joining the elite firm.

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Mark Yohalem

Mark Yohalem

As the good times roll on for Biglaw, the revolving door between law firms and the government continues to spin. We’ve written about prominent prosecutors leaving for private practice, and we’ve covered former solicitor general Don Verrilli joining the elite firm of Munger Tolles & Olson, to launch MTO’s D.C. office.

These events have now converged, in a notable new hire for Munger Tolles. As reported by Law360:

The former deputy chief of appeals at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California has joined Munger Tolles & Olson LLP as counsel in Los Angeles focused on complex litigation and appeals, the firm said Monday, marking another huge get for the firm in the last few weeks.

News of Mark R. Yohalem’s arrival at Munger Tolles’ Los Angeles office comes shortly after the California law firm — which had, until recently, offices in just LA and San Francisco — said former U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. is to open up its new Washington, D.C. office alongside veteran litigator Michael DeSanctis and former deputy associate attorney general Chad Golder.

Like Verrilli, DeSanctis, and Golder, Yohalem also has a gilded résumé. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he spent the past seven years of his career, he graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, and clerked for Judge Pamela Ann Rymer (9th Cir.) and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. (And, as we’ve mentioned before, he’s a video game writer too.)

Yohalem previously worked at Munger, right before becoming a federal prosecutor. So his going to MTO represents a homecoming of sorts — and means that the parties have a high comfort level with each other. As Yohalem told Law360, “I had already had relationships with people here and wanted to return to that environment where you’re working with brilliant lawyers on a variety of matters.”

Congratulations to Mark Yohalem and to Munger Tolles on the happy match. To my mind, here’s the biggest “danger,” from Munger’s point of view: Yohalem following in the footsteps of multiple Munger alums — Judges Paul Watford, John Owens, and Michelle Friedland — and leaving in short order for the Ninth Circuit.

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Ex-Deputy Appeals Chief At USAO Joins Munger Tolles In LA [Law360]
Deputy US Attorney in Apple-FBI Dispute Joins Munger Tolles [The Recorder via Big Law Business]

Earlier: More Prominent Prosecutors Leaving For Private Practice
Former Solicitor General Don Verrilli To Head Up D.C. Office For Surprising Biglaw Firm
A Deeper Dive Into Don Verrilli’s Move To Munger Tolles & Olson
All Your Base Are Belong To… This Harvard Law Grad And Former SCOTUS Clerk

David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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