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Willkie Farr Nabs Former White House Lawyer To Lead Crisis Management Practice

Michael Gottlieb joins Willkie Farr.

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A couple years ago, we were pointing to Michael Gottlieb as the vanguard of a new generation of Boies Schiller leadership. But as the firm moves on to the next phase in its evolution, it will have to do it without Gottlieb, who has left the firm for Willkie Farr where he’ll pursue his general litigation practice along with his role as a leader of the crisis management practice.

Gottlieb, a former John Paul Stevens clerk, has worked as Special Assistant to President Obama, Associate White House Counsel, and as a staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In private practice, Gottlieb has done it all, representing corporations and foreign governments in matters large and small. Along the way, he picked up a unanimous Supreme Court victory in last Term’s Animal Science case.

But this move got me thinking… what’s a crisis management practice really like?

A crisis management practice in Washington may trigger thoughts of Olivia Pope, but in describing the practice, Gottlieb’s job may more fairly be described as a three-dimensional chess player. “Many enterprise-threatening matters are no longer confined to a single courtroom. A large problem occurs that triggers media scrutiny, then Congress may get involved, a regulator may become interested, and inevitably there’s civil litigation…. It’s a multi-dimensional problem and you bring together different strands of legal practice to build a nimble team that’s more forward-looking to the challenges 5 or 6 steps down the road.”

Ultimately, it’s the deep bench of expertise in diverse practice areas that drew Gottlieb to Willkie. With strong experience in areas from private equity to restructuring to white-collar, Willkie offers a lot of talent to join the nimble crisis teams Gottlieb looks to build. With crises cropping up every day in Washington ranging from data breaches to whistleblowers, there are a lot of intersecting and overlapping practices that can be drawn into any given event. The practice sounds like a constant, high-stakes issue spotter requiring as much creativity and foresight as it does legal acumen.

And maybe a little bit of Olivia Pope.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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