Jessie Liu, U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., speaking at Main Justice in 2017. Credit: Bloomberg

Just days after U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu in Washington withdrew from consideration for a top Justice Department post, an association of women lawyers decried the objections to her nomination as “misplaced” and said they were improperly used to derail her ascension to the third-in-command role as associate attorney general.

Liu, the top federal prosecutor in Washington and a former Big Law white-collar partner, ran into opposition on the Senate Judiciary Committee over her past affiliation with the National Association of Women Lawyers, a group that opposed Justice Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. Liu's past affiliation with the group particularly irked Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a former Alito clerk, who questioned her conservative bona fides, including her stance on abortion.

In a statement Monday, the NAWL broadly criticized the opposition to Liu's nomination over her ties to the group, where she had been vice president in 2005 at the time the opposition to Alito was publicized. The association said the criticism of Liu could have a chilling effect on lawyers interested in joining bar associations and other professional organizations.

“Objections were raised to U.S. Attorney Liu's past involvement with NAWL—a 120-year-old non-profit organization that has fought to ensure equal opportunity and advancement of women lawyers in the legal profession and gender equality under the law,” the organization said in its statement. “These objections were misplaced, and were improperly used to derail U.S. Attorney Liu's nomination.”

Liu has said she was not involved in the group's letter opposing his confirmation to the Supreme Court. At the time, she had, in fact, joined with fellow Yale Law School alumni in signing a letter supporting Alito's nomination. “She supported Alito's nomination and disagreed with the NAWL committee's position,” the National Review's David French, who said he spoke with Liu, reported last month.

In a last-ditch effort to save her nomination, U.S. Attorney General William Barr spoke on the phone with Lee, but the conversation devolved into a shouting match, according to a source familiar with the talk. Barr, who'd recommended Liu for the nomination to serve as associate attorney general, appointed her last week as the new chairwoman of his advisory committee of U.S. attorneys. Liu formerly was a partner at Morrison & Foerster and Jenner & Block before joining the Trump administration in 2017.

William Barr testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be U.S. attorney general. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / NLJ

“Jessie Liu is one of the finest, most impressive people serving in the Department of Justice. She has been an outstanding United States attorney and would have made an outstanding associate attorney general,” Barr said in a statement Friday, after Liu formally withdrew from consideration. “I have zero doubt she would have faithfully executed my priorities and advanced my rule-of-law agenda. Because I need Jessie to play a broader role in the department, I am appointing her forthwith to be chairwoman of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.”

Liu's past affiliation with NAWL prompted a broader discussion in conservative circles about the possible pitfalls of joining professional groups. French, writing at the National Review, said the attention to Liu's past role with the women lawyers' group resonated with “a number of conservative lawyers.”

“Young conservative attorneys frequently grapple with the question of how much they should engage with ostensibly 'neutral' legal organizations—especially early in their careers. Bar associations and other legal organizations can offer invaluable training, mentoring, and networking,” French wrote in his piece. “However, to the extent they engage in politics, they tend to veer left. Do you turn your back on the mentoring and networking to avoid the politics, or do you engage with the group and hang in as long as you can?”

NAWL said nonprofit organizations “serve critical functions in this country and form a tapestry of community, uniting us in service to higher ideals.”

Lawyers such as Liu “who seek to serve in government should be encouraged, not shamed, to serve in bar associations and other organizations that promote women in their chosen professions and advocate for equality under the law and diversity and inclusion in the workplace,” the organization said. “Chilling such service is a disservice to this nation and the freedoms we hold dear.”

Read the statement the National Association of Women Lawyers issued:

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