Trump White House Lawyers: How Much Are They Worth? (Part 2)

Meet a Biglaw associate (not partner) who earned more than $800,000 last year.

(President Donald Trump by Ali Shaker/VOA)

(President Donald Trump by Ali Shaker/VOA)

Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday in our analysis of financial disclosures filed by lawyers who work in the Trump White House. They contain all sorts of interesting nuggets about law firm compensation, personal finance, and more.

We relied on the disclosures unearthed by the New York Times and Politico. But earlier today, we also came across an interesting piece from the National Law Journal, by C. Ryan Barber and Katelyn Polantz, picking out tidbits from additional disclosures. So we’re going to integrate those disclosures into our discussion as well.

Without further ado, here are highlights from the financial disclosures for White House staffers who are lawyers (defined broadly as law school graduates), in alphabetical order. Click on each person’s name to be taken to their disclosure. Remember, as we explained yesterday, that approximate asset values are reported in ranges, and the filings don’t include the value of personal residences.

1. James Burnham

James Burnham, special assistant and senior associate counsel to the president, is a University of Chicago law grad who joined the White House from Jones Day, where he worked on such major matters as former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s successful Supreme Court appeal. Jones Day has a famously “black box” compensation system, which some associates have complained is used to pay them below market — but that’s definitely not the case for Burnham.

As a 2009 law school graduate, Burnham would have been a seventh-year associate in 2016. Under the new $180K scale, a seventh-year would expect to earn a $300,000 base salary, plus a $100,000 bonus (although discount that base salary to reflect the fact that the new $180K scale didn’t go into effect until summer 2016). Burnham made more than twice that: as noted by the NLJ, he earned a whopping $810,000 from the firm.

Sponsored

Jones Day? More like Jones PayDay![1]

2. Uttam Dhillon

Also a special assistant and senior associate counsel to the president, Uttam Dhillon, a Boalt Hall aka Berkeley Law grad, joined the White House after serving as chief oversight counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. His disclosure form doesn’t list his income in that post because officials must disclose income only from positions outside the federal government, but online databases show he earned just under $170,000 in that job. He was previously a law firm partner, at Fitzpatrick Hagood Smith & Uhl LLP in Dallas, which might explain his ample assets — in excess of $4.5 million (at the low end), including three checking and savings accounts holding between $1.25 million and $2.5 million.

Why isn’t that money in the market, Uttam? You’re missing out on the Trump Bump!

3. Ann Donaldson

Sponsored

Annie Donaldson, special counsel to the president and chief of staff to the White House counsel, is a 2011 Harvard Law grad and former Jones Day associate. She earned $266,664 in salary from the firm, which is about in line with what a fifth-year would make (sans bonus; but recall that JD doesn’t pay the standard year-end bonus, instead “baking in” the bonus into one’s salary for the following year).

Donaldson has multiple bank accounts that hold at least $65,000. But she also has student loans somewhere between $55,000 and $165,000 (fortunately at low interest rates, ranging from 2.25% to 4.625%).

The most fun item on her disclosure: book royalties, between $400 and $2,000, for two novels written under the pseudonym by “Brett J. Talley”: That Which Should Not Be and He Who Walks In Shadow (yes, they’re horror novels; and no, snarky Democrats, they’re not about the Trump Administration).

UPDATE (4/5/2017, 11:26 a.m.): Brett J. Talley is a real person — follow him on Twitter (“Lawyer, Bram Stoker Award nominated horror writer, Conservative, Christian”) — who happens to be married to Ann Donaldson. He’s a legal luminary in his own right, currently serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy. Quite a power couple!

4. John Eisenberg

A 2001 Yale Law School graduate and former Kirkland & Ellis partner, John Eisenberg now serves as legal adviser to the National Security Council (and reportedly played a role in sharing certain intelligence files with House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R- Calif.)).

Eisenberg earned a cool $1,000,000 from K&E in salary and bonus (but note the absence of any return of partnership capital on his form; presumably he was a non-share partner). He has a lot of liquid assets, including a checking account containing between $500,001 and $1,000,000.

5. Michael Ellis

Michael Ellis, special assistant to the president and associate counsel, is also a 2001 2011 YLS grad — and also reportedly involved in sharing intelligence files with Chairman Nunes. Prior to joining the White House, Ellis worked for Nunes, serving as general counsel to the House Intelligence Committee. Ellis also clerked for two feeder judges, Jeffrey Sutton and Amul Thapar (one of Trump’s SCOTUS finalists, as well as the president’s first lower-court nominee, put up for elevation to the Sixth Circuit).

Ellis earned a shade over $160,000 in 2016 from his employment with the House. His assets are modest by Trump Administration standards — just one account exceeds $15,000 — and he still has somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 in student loans, at rates ranging from 6.55% to 8.25%. (Perhaps he should talk to some ATL advertisers — like AccessLex, which offers law students and graduates various financial-planning resources (such as a nifty student loan calculator), or SoFi, which helps with refinancing.)

Ellis is married to Katherine Racicot; here’s their Times wedding announcement.

6. Boris Epshteyn

Boris Epshteyn, described by the Times “as one of Mr. Trump’s chief attack dogs and television talking heads” during the presidential campaign, recently left his post as assistant director of communications. He’s a graduate of Georgetown Law (as noted in his NYT wedding announcement).

He earned a nice income last year: about $80,000 from Trump entities (the campaign and inaugural committee), $226,800 from an outfit called TGP Securities, and $240,000 in fees from Prime Health Services (healthcare consulting). He has extensive securities and cash holdings, but also more than $50,000 in student loans.

7. Scott Gast

Scott Gast, special assistant to the president and senior associate counsel for compliance — a big job in the Trump White House, given the tremendous wealth (and increased possibility for conflicts) of administration personnel — is a UVA Law grad and former associate at Covington & Burling LLP. He joined the White House after serving as Investigative Counsel to the Office of Congressional Ethics, where he earned a little under $150,000. His assets, mainly stocks and cash, are modest, but so are his liabilities — between $10,001 and $15,000 in student loans.

8. Jason Greenblatt

A 1992 graduate of NYU Law and former Fried Frank associate, Greenblatt is a longtime denizen of Trumpworld, having served as executive vice president and chief legal officer to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. During the campaign, he advised candidate Trump on U.S.-Israel relations. Greenblatt’s current title is assistant to the president and special representative for international negotiations.

Greenblatt earned $1,025,000 from his work for the Trump Organization. He has sizable securities holdings, plus a bank account containing between $100,001 and $250,000. As you’d expect from a longtime member of the real estate industry, he has significant real-estate-related holdings, including investment properties and what appear to be timeshares (“indirect interests” in various hotel and resort properties).

9. Vincent Haley

Advisor for policy, strategy, and speechwriting, Haley is a UVA Law grad and “longtime associate of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.” He earned $100,000 in salary from Gingrich Productions.

10. Kenneth I. Juster

Kenneth Juster, deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council, is a Harvard Law grad, former partner at Arnold & Porter, and most recently, former partner and managing director at the Warburg Pincus investment bank. As you’d expect from a former Biglaw and i-bank partner, he’s done very well for himself: per the Washington Post, his assets are worth at least $20.4 million.

11. Gregory Katsas

Greg Katsas, deputy counsel to the president (and also a contender for Solicitor General), is another Jones Day alum. And he seemed to fare quite well under its black box, per the NLJ:

Katsas raked in nearly $3.9 million last year as a Jones Day partner, buoyed by a 10-client roster including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Chevron Corp., Procter & Gamble, the U.S. House of Representatives and United Parcel Service.

Katsas said he received the money in his Jones Day capital account when he left the firm for the administration, and also got a departure bonus that was determined by the firm’s autocratic managing partner, Steve Brogan. It’s unclear in the filing how much of his millions from Jones Day last year were the buyouts.

Katsas’ filing also noted that Jones Day’s retirement benefits will leave him $28,000 a year until one month before he dies.

That $28K a year is modest compared to some Biglaw benefits upon retirement — compare it to Debevoise & Plimpton’s plan, which entitled former partner Mary Jo White to a whopping $42,500 a month in retirement. But the Jones Day benefit is certainly a nice supplement to whatever income would be thrown off by the millions that one would expect a JD partner to have socked away before riding off into the sunset.

Now it’s time for us to ride off into the sunset. Keep an eye out for the third and final installment in this series, which will feature the largest lawyerly fortune of them all.

[1] Random aside: I recently asked a source of mine who clerked for the Supreme Court about Jones Day’s historic strength in attracting SCOTUS clerks when they leave One First Street (although note that the firm’s clerk haul dipped dramatically in the most recent cycle). I wondered: if JD’s SCOTUS clerkship bonus is at or slightly above market, how does it attract so many more clerks? This source told me that Jones Day also offers SCOTUS clerks above-market base salaries (even after giving them seniority credit for their clerkships) — which other firms generally don’t do, but JD can because of its “black box” system. And it can use that system to reward stars like Burnham as well (who, as a Chicago Law grad and former Kozinski clerk, is about as close as one can come to SCOTUS clerk status without actually clerking for the Court).

UPDATE (4/6/2017, 1:45 p.m.): As promised, here’s Trump White House Lawyers: How Much Are They Worth? (Part 3).

Trump Lawyers’ Financial Disclosures Reveal Big Law Salaries, Client Lists [National Law Journal]
Who’s Worth What at the White House: The Financial Disclosures [New York Times]
White House staff financial disclosures: A deeper dive into the forms [Politico]
Kellyanne Conway Valued Polling Firm at $5 Million, Filing Shows [BloombergPolitics]

Earlier: Trump White House Lawyers: How Much Are They Worth? (Part 1)
Friday Night Fights — At The Ninth Circuit
Judge Neil Gorsuch: What’s His Net Worth?


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.