Department of Justice, Federal Government, Solicitor General's Office

What's Going On At The Solicitor General's Office?

A game of musical chairs -- lots of movement into and out of the office.

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Main Justice (by Coolcaesar via Wikimedia)

With the U.S. Supreme Court not in session, you’d expect things to be quiet at the Office of the Solicitor General, the Justice Department component that represents the federal government before SCOTUS. The office also doesn’t have a Senate-confirmed leader yet; nominee Noel Francisco advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a party-line vote of 11-9 last month, but awaits a floor vote.

But as it turns out, there’s a fair amount going on at OSG. Acting solicitor general Jeffrey Wall and several of his colleagues are working long hours defending the travel ban, for example. And the identities of Wall’s colleagues at OSG are very much in flux right now, as reported by Tony Mauro in Supreme Court Brief:

Two lawyers are leaving the U.S. solicitor general’s office for private practice, two have joined from private firms, and more departures and hires are likely before the fall term begins in October…

Current assistant to the solicitor general Sarah Harrington is heading to Goldstein & Russell, a Supreme Court boutique in Washington, and Ilana Eisenstein, another assistant, is expected to join an outside-the-beltway firm as soon as this week. Meanwhile Erica Ross, a Jenner & Block partner, has been hired by the SG’s office, as has Jonathan Ellis, an associate at Latham & Watkins. Ross clerked for Justice Elena Kagan, while Ellis clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

Are lawyers leaving OSG because they don’t want to work in the Trump Administration? Some say that’s not the case:

What is behind the flurry of moves at the SG’s office? [OSG alum turned Akin Gump partner Pratik] Shah chalks it up to “natural turnover rather than any clear causal connection” with last November’s election.

The main correlation with the change in administrations, Shah said, is that it opened up opportunities for lawyers to move to other Justice Department jobs, thereby creating vacancies to fill in the SG’s office. That has coincided with the traditional wave of departures every six years or so.

Curtis Gannon, a 10-year veteran of the office, left in January to head the Office of Legal Counsel, and Hashim Mooppan, who served briefly in the SG’s office, went to the department’s civil appellate division. Earlier in the year, assistants Roman Martinez and Ginger Anders also left for private practice. And last month, special counsel Robert Mueller recruited deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben and assistant to the solicitor Elizabeth Prelogar for his team, though Dreeben will also continue to work on SG matters.

As Mauro notes, these moves will affect diversity in the office, especially gender diversity — which matters because many of the top women SCOTUS litigators came out of OSG. The Supreme Court bar still tends to be very male-dominated, despite the presence of stars like Lisa Blatt (Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer), Beth Brinkmann (Covington & Burling), Maureen Mahoney (Latham & Watkins), and Deanne Maynard (Morrison & Foerster).

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Good luck to Sarah Harrington and Ilana Eisenstein as they make the transition from government to private practice. Lisa Blatt offers wise advice: “You have to be fearless and aggressive—and excited.”

Musical Chairs in ‘Year of Transition’ for Solicitor General’s Office [Supreme Court Brief]

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.

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