More Sullivan & Cromwell Lawyers Joining The Trump Administration

After Jones Day, is S&C the biggest "feeder firm" to the Trump Administration?

Two thumbs up for S&C (President Donald Trump by Ali Shaker/VOA)

Two thumbs up for S&C (President Donald Trump by Ali Shaker/VOA)

After Jones Day, which is clearly the “feeder firm” to the Trump Administration, which big name of Biglaw sends the most lawyers in DJT’s direction? I haven’t seen a comprehensive analysis (or conducted one myself), but Sullivan & Cromwell is definitely up there.

The most prominent S&C partner nominated to serve under Donald Trump is Jay Clayton, picked by the president to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Clayton recently cleared his ethics review and is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on March 23.

Critics charge that the veteran dealmaker is too close to Wall Street to serve as its chief regulator, but I’m not sure I agree. Like anything else, regulation has costs and benefits. If the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of excessive regulation, as criticism (by President Trump and others) of the Dodd-Frank Act suggests, having someone like Clayton as SEC chair — someone who understands the problems as well as the promise of regulation — could be a good thing. Also, to the extent that the Commission under Mary Jo White focused too much on enforcement, a chair who will promote capital formation might be beneficial.

Yesterday we broke the news of Noel Francisco, the Jones Day partner turned principal deputy solicitor general, being nominated to serve as solicitor general on a long-term basis. Who will fill Francisco’s shoes as principal deputy SG?

As noted earlier today by Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog and Robert Barnes of the Washington Post, those honors go to Jeffrey Wall, currently serving as co-chair of S&C’s appellate practice. Like Francisco, Wall is a great pick for his new post. He’s a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, a former law clerk to two distinguished judges (Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas), and an alumnus of the SG’s office. He’s argued before the Court a whopping eleven times (more even than his future boss Francisco, who has three arguments under his belt).

Wall isn’t the only partner in S&C’s D.C. office who’s heading for the Trump Administration. As reported just now by Bloomberg Politics, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s pick for his department’s general counsel is Brent McIntosh, a litigation partner at S&C and co-head of its cybersecurity practice. McIntosh, a Yale Law School graduate with prior service at both the Justice Department and in the White House Counsel’s office, has extensive experience working for clients in the financial sector, including such major names as AIG, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Prudential, and UBS. He too is an excellent choice for his position. (Robert Schmidt and Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg Politics suggest that McIntosh’s Twitter feed has complicated his candidacy, but our sources say that it was simply reviewed as part of the routine White House vetting process, and he should not have any problems.)

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Clayton, Wall, and McIntosh are all S&C partners. Also joining the Trump Administration is Jed Doty, a former associate who’s now in the White House Counsel’s office.

A white-shoe law firm and a brash billionaire might seem like an unlikely couple. But if lawyers from the culturally conservative S&C can curb some of the Donald’s excesses, that’s all to the good.

UPDATE (3/9/2017, 1:39 p.m.): Here’s a list of Biglaw attorneys who worked on the Trump transition — not the same as a list of lawyers taking permanent jobs in the administration, but certainly a useful indicator of which law firms carry clout in Trumpworld.

UPDATE (3/15/2017, 11:42 a.m.): Brent McIntosh’s nomination is now official. H. Rodgin Cohen — senior chairman at Sullivan & Cromwell, and a contender for a top Treasury job himself, in the Obama Administration — praised McIntosh, saying he’s the “rare combination of an individual who really is extremely gifted intellectually but also combines that with a sense of business judgment.”

SEC Nominee Jay Clayton Set for Senate Panel Hearing [Wall Street Journal]
President Trump Probably Having Second Thoughts About SEC Pick [Dealbreaker]
Trump to nominate Francisco to serve as solicitor general [SCOTUSblog]
Trump nominates D.C. lawyer Noel Francisco as solicitor general [Washington Post]
Questions About Loyalty to Trump Stall Mnuchin’s Treasury Picks [Bloomberg Politics]

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Earlier: And The Nominee For Solicitor General Is….
Jones Day In The (White) House: The Biglaw Firm Fills Top Jobs In The Trump Administration
Trump Nominates Sullivan & Cromwell Partner To Lead SEC


DBL square headshotDavid Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.