The U.S. Solicitor General’s Office has increased the ranks of its assistants with the hiring of Masha Hansford, formerly counsel at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and Nicole Frazer Reaves, an associate at the Washington litigation boutique Cooper & Kirk.

The dearth of female advocates within the solicitor general’s office—and more broadly, the few women who argue at the Supreme Court, compared to males—has drawn widespread attention in recent years.