Biglaw lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis, Jones Day, McGuireWoods, Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Morrison & Foerster have been named to Donald Trump’s transition team at the US Department of Justice.
The team, which will oversee hiring and policy at the DOJ as the President-elect transitions into office, was announced Friday and expanded yesterday, two reports from
The National Law Journal reveal.
On Friday, Kirland & Ellis partner Brian Benczkowski and Jones Day partner Gregory Katsas and associate James Burnham were revealed to be part of the team. Yesterday, McGuireWoods partner J. Patrick Rowan, Morgan Lewis & Bockius partner Ronald Tenpas and Morrison & Foerster partner Jessie Liu were also named to the team.
Benczkowski, who specialises in litigation and white-collar defence, previously worked for Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for US Attorney-General, on the Senate Judiciary Committee leading the Republican staff. He also has experience as chief of staff for the Office of the Attorney-General and the Office of the Deputy Attorney-General.
Katsas, who served in the DOJ for the entire George W. Bush administration, was formerly the Civil Division chief and also served as acting associate attorney-general. He and Burnham are also partners with Donald McGahn II who’s now the general counsel for the transition team,
The National Law Journal reported.
Meanwhile, Rowan, also a white-collar defence specialist, is the former head of the DOJ’s National Security Division. He was also a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington for more than a decade before moving to Main Justice in 2003.
Tenpas, who also specialises in white-collar defence, was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois and a federal prosecutor in Maryland and Florida before overseeing the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Liu, another white-collar defence specialist, was deputy assistant attorney-general in the Civil Rights Division, deputy chief of staff in the National Security Division and counsel to the deputy attorney-general before leading the DOJ’s National Security and Civil Rights divisions.
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