June 29, 2021
ExxonMobil Ally Elizabeth Rosenberg In Line For Top Job In Biden’s Treasury
New financial disclosure filings reveal that Elizabeth Rosenberg, Biden’s pick for Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing, was a consultant for ExxonMobil and a Big Oil-aligned corporate law firm.
June 07, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Leslie Caldwell
Leslie Caldwell, a top corporate criminal defense partner at BigLaw giant Latham & Watkins, is in the running for a U.S. Attorney job under Biden. Her record championing draconian anti-hacking laws and helping big corporations evade accountability for white-collar crimes should preclude her from any role in the Biden administration.
June 07, 2021 | The American Prospect
Former Corporate Lawyer Set to Lead Army Corps of Engineers as Planet Sizzles
Michael Connor of WilmerHale has been appointed to run a surprisingly important agency in efforts to mitigate the climate crisis.
May 21, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Brian Netter
Brian Netter, a corporate attorney who represented big business in wage theft cases and litigated against workers who sued companies for mismanaging their retirement funds, was just appointed to the Department of Justice.
May 19, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Ellisen Turner
If appointed, Turner would be a transparent and flagrant case study in the workings of the revolving door, which means he would be right in line with the IP orthodoxy PTO has upheld.
May 19, 2021
Biden Hired State Dept. Official From Eugene Scalia's Law Firm, New Report Shows
As the report explores, Gibson Dunn’s ties to the Republican Party run back to the Reagan era.
May 17, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Howard Shelanski
Shelanski, Obama’s second OIRA administrator, now represents monopolies like Facebook and Tyson Foods. His regulatory skepticism and disdain for the emerging antitrust movement would make him a disastrous pick for any role in the Biden administration.
May 10, 2021
Can An Appointee Loyal To BigLaw Be Trusted To Oversee The Army Corps Of Engineers?
President Biden announced last week the appointment of Michael Connor to be the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works within the Department of Defense, making him responsible for the entire Army Corps of Engineers.
May 03, 2021
Brad Karp Harasses Journalists. Why Are Journalists Quoting Him Uncritically?
Karp’s own “strong ethical code” includes not just mass payoffs to Democratic politicians, as I wrote about last year, but more relevantly, organized intimidation of the press for ever daring to report unflatting facts about Paul, Weiss.
April 28, 2021
Second Report in BigLaw Revolving Door Series Examines Right-Wing And Corporate Ties At Jones Day
Today the Revolving Door Project (RDP) and People’s Parity Project (PPP) released the second report in their the BigLaw Revolving Door series, examining Jones Day’s government ties and corporate clients. The BigLaw Revolving Door series investigates the outsized influence of corporate law firms and their clients on the executive branch and regulatory law spaces.
April 13, 2021
Will Todd Kim Promise To Defend The Environment In The Face Of Industry Pressure?
President Biden announced last month that he would nominate Todd Kim to be the top environmental lawyer at the Department of Justice. It was a relatively quiet announcement, devoid of much fanfare, compared to the position’s enormous potential to shape environmental and climate policy for years to come.
April 09, 2021
New BigLaw Revolving Door Report Series Will Examine Corporate Law Firm Influence In Executive Branch And Regulatory Law
Today the Revolving Door Project and People’s Parity Project launched the BigLaw Revolving Door report series to investigate the outsized influence of corporate law firms and their clients on the executive branch and regulatory law spaces. As activists and legal experts continue to urge the Biden Administration to lock BigLaw attorneys, particularly those with large corporate clients, out of the leadership of his Department of Justice, RDP and PPP recognize the importance of exposing the horrific track record of these firms. Through this series, RDP and PPP plan to examine these corporate law firms and their clients more closely and educate the public about this often overlooked system of influence peddling.
March 23, 2021
Revolver Spotlight: Jonathan Su
His work for Latham & Watkins included representing a high-profile convicted sex offender, a Republican Senator who profitted off the COVID-19 pandemic while deceiving the public, and a pharmaceutical company that created an artificial shortage of life-saving medicine.
March 11, 2021
Letter Calls On Garland To Commit To Greater Transparency At DOJ
Long before Trump and his cronies took a sledgehammer to the Justice Department, blatant conflicts of interest and endless trips through the revolving door were already eroding its foundation and threatening its structural integrity. Yet, despite an appeal from 37 progressive and good government groups, including ours, Garland has signaled that he will not target that longer-running source of distrust at the root by shutting out BigLaw attorneys from the Justice Department.
February 22, 2021
Garland Must Lock BigLaw Out Of DOJ Leadership To Enact Biden Agenda, 37 Groups Say
A coalition of 37 racial, worker, environmental, and social justice organizations demanded that President Biden’s attorney general nominee Merrick Garland keep BigLaw attorneys out of the leadership of his Department of Justice, especially those who generally represent large corporations or alleged white-collar criminals.