White House Counsel

There was much speculation about where former White House counsel Harriet Miers, of the ill-fated Supreme Court nomination, would wind up. Would Miers oversee the George W. Bush Presidential Library at her alma mater, SMU? Would she be nominated to the Fifth Circuit? Would she launch a new line of high-end eye make-up? The suspense […]

Here are some recent, noteworthy moves within the D.C. legal community: Inside the Administration: * Conservative legal superstar Jennifer Brosnahan has left the White House Counsel’s office, where she was one of the more senior associate counsels, to become the new deputy general counsel at the Department of Transportation. From government to private practice: * […]

Here’s some (belated) news about notable moves at the Department of Justice and the White House: New Arrivals at the DOJ: We enjoy breathlessly reporting on the meteoric career trajectories of attractive women. And attractive men, too. Over at Main Justice, two handsome gents have come onboard: * The fresh-faced Thomas Dupree, Jr., formerly a […]

Fred Fielding, the former name partner of Wiley Rein & Fielding who is now settling in as White House counsel (for the second time), has brought in some reinforcements. They come from his former shop, Wiley Rein & Fielding (now known simply as Wiley Rein). Three former Wiley Rein-sters, a partner and two associates, are […]

* Over at the Justice Department, the bad-ass Shanetta Cutlar, Chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, takes no prisoners. * Not even summer interns can escape her wrath. * But hey, at least they get to go back to school. Full-time attorneys can escape only by leaving the Section — […]

We previously wrote about President Bush’s selection of Fred Fielding as his new White House counsel. Our coverage was based on a pre-announcement scoop by Time, not an actual announcement from the White House. Just to close the loop on this, the rumor was correct: Fielding’s selection is now official. Here’s the (predictably bland) White […]

“You can stand them up at the gates of hell, And they will back down.” A new Senate. A new White House counsel. And new hope for judicial nominees who might actually get confirmed. In our lifetimes. The Bush Administration’s four most controversial judicial nominees, referred to in some Senate Judiciary Committee circles as “the […]

* We took Eve Harrington’s Jan Crawford Greenburg’s quip that Justice Stevens told her when he was planning to retire as a joke. But not everyone did. [Volokh Conspiracy; Althouse] * A juicy rumor. But who on earth could it be? [Concurring Opinions] (Btw, congrats to Concurring Opinions on its one millionth visitor.) * Former […]

This just in, from Time: In a signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling, President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME. Fielding, who held the same position under President Ronald […]

Last week was short, thanks to the New Year’s holiday; but it sure was busy. Here are some highlights from a very momentous week: * No more jokes about Harriet Miers: the ill-fated ex-SCOTUS nominee has resigned as White House counsel. Speculation about her successor abounds. * No more jokes about the Dewy Orifice: the […]

President Bush famously described Harriet E. Miers, the outgoing White House counsel, as “a pit bull in size six shoes.” Woof woof! But some White House insiders viewed Harriet Miers as insufficiently canine. Per the Washington Post: Miers, a longtime Bush loyalist whose nomination to the Supreme Court was withdrawn in 2005 as a result […]

* Some interesting comments about Harriet Miers getting a Fifth Circuit nomination, as well as speculation about who might replace her as White House counsel. [ConfirmThem] (We second the suggestion of Rachel Brand (at right). Brand previously worked in the White House counsel’s office, before her appointment to head the Office of Legal Policy at […]

As previously reported, Harriet Miers — she of the ill-fated Supreme Court nomination* — has submitted her resignation as White House Counsel. It will take effect at the end of this month, on January 31. The search for her replacement has begun. From White House spokesman Tony Snow: “Basically, she has been here six years. […]

For those of you who enjoyed poking fun at Harriet Miers during her ill-fated Supreme Court nomination, you won’t have her to kick around anymore. (Yes, we know. When it comes to mockery of Harriet Miers, we have somewhat unclean hands.) We must step away from our computer now. As Howard Bashman might say, we […]

It has been a while since our last round-up of notable moves within the legal profession. So there’s a lot to report today: Law Firm to… Prison? * Former Milberg Weiss name partner Steven Schulman resigned from the firm to pursue “new ventures.” The most important of these “ventures” will surely be fighting federal charges […]

At the White House: * On the heels of Christopher Oprison and Cheryl Stanton, former Wilmer Hale partner Paul Eckert joins the White House Counsel’s Office. Lateral Moves: * Nicholas H. Politan, to Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (NY), from Bingham McCutchen, where he served as co-head of the project and structured finance group. (Wild guess: […]

At the White House: Positions in the White House Counsel’s office are some of the most prestigious and interesting jobs in the entire legal profession. And now two new lawyers are coming on board as associate counsels to the president: * Christopher Oprison, formerly of Skadden Arps (Washington, DC); and Cheryl Stanton, a former law […]

Thanks to everyone who responded to our request for gossip about possible Fifth Circuit judicial nominations. Your tips were very helpful to us, as was this piece in the Texas Lawyer. (And thanks to Peter Harrell, a current law student and former political reporter for Congressional Quarterly, for this insightful comment. A good point. With […]

An interesting update to our prior post about Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent appearance at the Yale Law School. From a current YLS student: Some of us were bothered — though not exactly surprised — by Dean Harold Koh’s tepid introduction of Justice Scalia. Koh couldn’t seem to find anything warm and welcoming to say about […]

In the wake of the Democratic victories in the midterm elections, people are wondering: How will federal judicial nominations be affected? The answer is unclear. On the one hand: “It’s going to be much harder to get hardline conservatives through,” says Michael Seidman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Bush’s “history isn’t to […]