Hogan Lovells partner Ty Cobb did his firm a big favor.
That s not to suggest the longtime partner wasn t valuable or well-liked. But by announcing he ll leave the firm to represent Donald Trump, he saved Hogan a world of hurt.
It means the firm won t have to try to justify what would have been a glaring conflict appellate practice co-head Neal Katyal is leading the charge against the travel ban.
Hogan won t get letters from clients like the one Wallace Global Fund sent to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, firing the firm for enabling Trump s unchecked self-dealing, flouting of the Constitution and concealment of the truth from the public.
And it won t have to worry about turning off potential new hires or how to manage internal hand-wringing from lawyers and staff who don t want to feel complicit in assisting the president.
Still, Cobb s work as White House special counsel means Hogan will have an insider connection to the Trump administration without the taint of direct association (The president s latest approval rating is just 36 percent). It's a win-win.
You ve got to wonder if folks at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr are also breathing a sigh of relief. On Friday, my colleague Katelyn Polantz broke the news that partner Jamie Gorelick will not represent Jared Kushner on the Russia probe, though she ll continue to assist him and Ivanka Trump on ethics compliance and security clearance issues.
Those could be significant as Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, points out, making false statements to federal investigators in violation of laws like 18 U.S.C. 1001 is fairly simple and straightforward to prove, and punishable by five years in prison. But it just doesn t have the heft of defending Kushner in the Russia investigation. That will be handled by Abbe Lowell, who co-heads the white-collar practice at Norton Rose Fulbright.
The Kushner representation has been particularly awkward for Gorelick and Wilmer, and not just because special counsel Robert Mueller is a former partner.
More than any other firm, Wilmer lawyers were ubiquitous in the top ranks of the Obama administration, with at least 20 partners leaving the firm for posts such as deputy attorney general, deputy Treasury secretary, chief counsel of the IRS and general counsel of the SEC.
No partners appear to have left the firm for politically appointed jobs in the Trump administration.
Nor does the president seem to have many supporters in the 900-lawyer firm. According to Open Secrets, people who listed WilmerHale, Wilmer Hale or Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr as their employer made 702 direct contributions to Hillary Clinton s campaign. Only one person partner Gail Ennis gave to Donald Trump, with three donations totaling $600. (Hogan is almost as lopsided: 503 donations for Clinton, five for Trump. Oh, and don t tell Trump, but Cobb gave $200 to Bernie Sanders and $2,700 to Marco Rubio.)