New lawyers to lead the nation are sending in their resumes. Already, UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley has received a choice position as part of Obama's transition advisory board. (I wonder if he's accepting resumes from his students?)

Here's an interesting choice for Edley and the rest of the transition team that will be picking the next Solicitor General. According to the Legal Times:

No woman has ever served as solicitor general, but a number have been mentioned as candidates for the job in an Obama administration. Stanford Law School professors Kathleen Sullivan and Pamela Karlan and Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan are possibilities, as well as Morrison & Foerster partner Beth Brinkmann and MetLife litigation counsel Teresa Wynn Roseborough.

They could also be considered to lead of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which produces legal opinions on complex matters for the attorney general and the president. Lawyers who have held both positions have gone on to become Supreme Court justices. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justices Stanley Reed and Thurgood Marshall were solicitors general. The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and current Justice Antonin Scalia once headed the Office of Legal Counsel. That experience could come in handy should one or more Supreme Court justices step down in the next four years.

Speculation has also centered on prominent African-American attorneys who may be ready to step forward:

Valerie Jarrett (Stanford, Michigan Law): Jarrett is a longtime Obama adviser, who's now one of three people heading his transition team. She told the WSJ that blacks won't be pigeonholed into "historically conventional" roles, such as secretary of housing and urban development or assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Other high profile positions after the jump.

As the old saying goes, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a lawyer to be hired as a lateral partner at Williams & Connolly." The last lateral partner to be hired by the super-elite litigation shop, which people and corporations turn to when they're in the deepest of doo-doo, was Gerald Feffer, brought into the fold over two decades ago.

So this latest move is fairly big news. Appellate superstar Kannon Shanmugam, one of Washington's top 40 lawyers under 40 (see #21), is leaving the Solicitor General's office, where he has served for the past four years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. He'll be joining Williams & Connolly -- as a partner.

"It's very hard to leave the Justice Department, but I'm excited about the challenge of helping to build the appellate practice at Williams & Connolly," Shanmugam told us. "It's arguably the best firm for litigation in the country, but what ultimately attracted me to the firm is its distinctive culture."

"We are thrilled to have Kannon join us," said Robert Barnett, a member of the firm's Executive Committee (and author rep to the stars -- he's negotiated book deals for the Clintons, Barack Obama, Bob Woodward, Lynne Cheney, and Alan Greenspan, among others). "He's our first lateral partner in 22 years, which is indicative of how rarely we have lateral partners join us."

"Almost everyone at the firm is homegrown, coming up through the associate ranks and making partner," explained Barnett to ATL. "Kannon, because of his exceptional qualities, is going to be a rare exception to that pattern. On a personal level, he's a terrific individual. But we are also extremely respectful and welcoming of his legal skills."

Word on the street is that Shanmugam received offers from about half a dozen other firms. "He was sought by many firms, and being as competitive as we are, we're pleased to have won the Kannon sweepstakes," said Bob Barnett.

Additional discussion, after the jump.

Could it be? A message for ATL from Paul Clement, the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States?

(It's not completely out of the question. We have written about Clement a fair amount, and we have also met him in person.)

The lowercase type for his name seemed a little odd. But some very prominent attorneys, like John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel, use lowercase type for email messages. Based on the subject line, "Order," we guessed that perhaps the former SG wanted to share a funny court order with us.

Read the message from Paul Clement, after the jump.

The federal government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court, Paul D. Clement, is stepping down as U.S. Solicitor General. The brilliant and affable Clement was confirmed as Solicitor General on June 8, 2005; his last day as SG will be June 2, 2008. (Prior to his confirmation, he served as SG in an acting capacity.)

A superstar of the Justice Department and the Supreme Court bar, Clement was discussed as a possible replacement for Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Widely praised for both his prowess as an appellate advocate and his leadership of the SG's office, Clement was named to the American Lawyer's list of 50 top litigators under 45. He is, of course, a member of the Elect (OT 1993 / Scalia), as well as a graduate of Georgetown and Harvard Law School.

No word yet on where Clement is heading. He practiced previously at Kirkland & Ellis and King & Spalding, so perhaps he will return to one of those shops. The AP reports that Clement "[does] not have any immediate plans other than spending the summer with his children."

Update (11/20/08): Clement is returning to King & Spalding.

Ah, the old "spend more time with my family" rationale, so popular here inside the Beltway. But why is Paul Clement invoking it? He's leaving covered in glory, not scandal.

The official DOJ press release, issued about half an hour ago, after the jump

Throughout the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, which we attended last week, various members and leaders of the group revelled in its reputation for being part of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" (in the immortal words of Senatrix Hillary Rodham Clinton).

We're going to play along. We have a few write-ups of conference events that we'll be posting, and we're titling this series of posts From the Belly of the Beast.

Last week we mentioned how we got to meet Solicitor General Paul Clement (at right), the federal government's lead advocate before the Supreme Court. We provide a quick account of his remarks to the Society, after the jump.

Note: In our prior post, we badly botched -- we're talking John Kerry-style botchery -- a description of Solicitor General Clement's record of Supreme Court appearance. These two comments set the record straight: Clement is 40 years old, and he has had 36 Supreme Court oral arguments, making him just four arguments short of matching his age.

Warning: The rest of this post contains that dreaded thing known as "substantive legal discussion." And there's not much in the way of humor to leaven the proceedings. So read on at your own risk, and don't complain if it's a little dry.