After Midterms, Lawyers and Lobbyists Look for Opportunities in Divided Government
Between a new Congress and a new U.S. attorney general, one constant in Washington will be lawyers in high demand.
November 07, 2018 at 04:34 PM
4 minute read
Tuesday's midterm elections began creating new legal business for Washington lawyers long before the votes were finalized nationwide.
Control of the House of Representatives changed hands to Democrats, Republicans expanded their majority in the U.S. Senate, and lawyers moved quickly to capitalize on the nation's new divided government before exact tallies in either chamber are fully known.
Marc Elias, chair of Perkins Coie's political law group, is representing incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, as the Sunshine State's only statewide-elected Democrat fights for a recount against Gov. Rick Scott, his Republican challenger. Elias, who has argued several gerrymandering cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has become a go-to lawyer for Democrats in election showdowns and redistricting fights, shared news of his representation on Twitter.
However the Florida recount of 2018 ends, it does not look likely to determine the balance of power in any branch of the federal government, nor to strip Republicans' control of the U.S. Senate.
Tim Hutchinson, former Arkansas senator and lobbyist at Greenberg Traurig, said Wednesday that the election results made his Grand Old Party even more closely aligned with President Donald Trump's insurgent administration.
“America remains very, very divided,” Hutchinson said regarding his takeaways from Tuesday's results during a webinar hosted by Greenberg Traurig. “The Kavanaugh vote, number two, was decisive in a lot of these Senate races; it changed the momentum. … And then my third point is that the president's grip on the GOP is stronger than ever.”
Albert Wynn, a former Democratic congressman from Maryland and Greenberg Traurig senior director, said he thinks California congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's grip on her own party will be tighter than people expect if she becomes the next Speaker of the House. Wynn said during Wednesday's webinar that he anticipated Pelosi would win the House's top spot and that she would govern her fellow Democrats with an “iron fist inside a velvet glove.”
Taken together, Greenberg Traurig's government law and policy group seemed to think some legislative action could occur on infrastructure and trade issues, but new investigations would certainly be mounted from a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner Reginald Brown, who heads his firm's congressional investigations practice, said he did not think Democrats would necessarily be hyper-aggressive on the investigations front.
“I think the suggestion that this [new Congress] is going to change everything and that there will be investigations from dawn to dusk is not right,” Brown said. “There'll be some changes, but they'll be modest changes.”
Wilmer; Covington & Burling; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher together stand to earn the lion's share of work on congressional investigatory matters, in Brown's view, but a new regulatory enforcement climate and differing Democratic priorities could yield new opportunities for legal business.
Brown said he thinks Democrats will focus on consumer-protection-related issues, the Environmental Protection Agency's activity and climate change issues, and safety issues as they pertain to emerging technologies such as those incorporated into driverless cars and drones.
Democratic priorities could also have a collateral impact on litigation, but much is yet to be determined—including who will serve as the next attorney general. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' letter of resignation, submitted to Trump on Wednesday following the election's outcome, could prove to be the biggest factor shaping legal business in Washington in the months and years to come.
Read More:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllCan Law Firms Avoid Landing on 'Enemy' List During the Trump Administration?
5 minute readTrending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250