Meet the Big Law Litigators the US House Turned To in 2019
With roughly a dozen lawsuits on their docket and an impeachment fight on Capitol Hill, the House has turned to outside help to boost its legal team.
December 28, 2019 at 03:00 PM
6 minute read
In the year since Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, they've been tied up in several legal fights with the Trump administration and efforts to defend federal laws the Justice Department has abandoned.
House general counsel Douglas Letter was hired in January to lead the team, and has expanded the office, featuring eight attorneys and three law clerks.
But with roughly a dozen lawsuits on his docket and an impeachment fight on Capitol Hill, the House authorized Letter to get outside help, pro bono or not, to help with the courtroom fights.
Here's a rundown on all the outside lawyers and firms the House has tapped to help.
|Munger, Tolles & Olson
Former Solicitor General Don Verrilli and his firm were the first to jump in the House legal battles, signing onto the House's motion to intervene to defend the Affordable Care Act at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Verrilli successfully defended Obamacare before the Supreme Court when he was solicitor general during the Obama administration. After the Fifth Circuit ruled in Texas' favor in its challenge to the law, he could find himself again arguing in favor of the health care law before the justices.
|Hogan Lovells
Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, also a faculty member with ICAP, has also been helping with the House lawsuits. In addition to the female genital mutilation ban, the Hogan Lovells partner helped out with the census citizenship litigation.
|
Sidley Austin
Sidley Austin partners Carter Phillips, Virginia Seitz and Joseph Guerra have all signed on to help the House sue the Trump administration to block the diversion of military funds toward the construction of a wall on the southern border.
The lawsuit, filed after Trump declared a national emergency last year to end a record-long partial government shutdown, was quickly dismissed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia after he found the House didn't have standing to file the complaint.
The Big Law partners joined the case once the House filed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Oral arguments are now scheduled for Feb. 18.
|Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber
Appellate heavyweights at Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber entered the fray of subpoena fights in late October, as House lawyers pushed the D.C. Circuit to speed up the timeline for enforcing the subpoena for tax records from Trump's private accounting firm, Mazars.
Roy Englert Jr., Lawrence Robbins, Hunter Smith, Alan Strasser and Jennifer Windom—all with Robbins Russell—have worked on the Mazars case, as well as the challenge on a similar House subpoena to Deutsche Bank and Capital One as the cases made their way up the Supreme Court. Firm associate Brandon Arnold also signed onto the Supreme Court petition in the Deutsche Bank case.
The justices have agreed to hear the Mazars and Deutsche Bank cases, consolidating them and scheduling oral arguments for March.
|Arnold & Porter
Most recently, four lawyers from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have stepped in to help on the case over the subpoena for requested impeachment inquiry witness Charles Kupperman.
Daniel Jacobson, Stanton Jones, Sally Pei and Elisabeth Theodore all filed notices of appearance in the case in early December. Jacobson previously worked as a White House lawyer in the Obama administration, and Theodore was a special counsel at the FBI.
The case seems destined for a quiet end, as U.S. District Judge Richard Leon focused oral arguments this month on whether the case was moot after the House withdrew the subpoena for Kupperman's testimony.
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Debevoise & Plimpton
In the most recent lawsuit filed by the House, attorneys at Debevoise & Plimpton are helping the House Oversight and Reform Committee in their bid to compel testimony and documents from Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the attempted census citizenship question.
The committee, under the leadership of late Rep. Elijah Cummings, voted earlier this year to hold Barr and Ross in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas for that information. This lawsuit builds off evidence apparently obtained by House Democrats showing the "true origin" behind the citizenship question, but still seeks other documents withheld by Trump administration officials.
Debevoise & Plimpton's David O'Neil—a top official at the DOJ's criminal division during the Obama administration—is listed on the case, along with firm associates Laura O'Neill and Nathaniel Johnson, and counsel Anna Moody.
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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.
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