Administrations come and go, but Latham & Watkins remains a constant – a white-shoe law firm that serves as a de-facto farm team for the U.S. Justice Department, regardless of a president’s political leanings.
“We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: Young law dogs with Department of Justice aspirations should consider Latham & Watkins,” advised the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog. “The firm seems to be the DOJ’s home away from home.”
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The latest defection is partner Kathryn Ruemmler, who has just been tapped as principal associate deputy attorney general in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department. Reummler is a superstar litigator who had previously been part of the government’s Enron prosecution team.
The revolving door is also swinging in the other direction. While Ruemler heeds the call of government service in a Democratic administration, Alice S. Fisher, the Justice Department’s criminal division chief who oversaw high-profile prosecutions in counterterrorism and corporate fraud under George W. Bush, recently returned to the firm’s ranks.
And the two are hardly exceptions.
Other Latham & Watkins alumni who worked in the Bush Justice Department include heavyweights Michael Chertoff, who was assistant attorney general before becoming secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and Philip Perry, the vice-president’s son-in-law who served as associate attorney general before becoming general counsel for the Homeland Security department.
Serving in earlier Democratic and Republican administrations was partner Beth Wilkinson, who prosecuted Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing and who subsequently married Meet the Press moderator David Gregory.
Expanding beyond the Justice Department, the list of the firm’s notable alumni is even broader including Bruce Babbit, the former governor of Arizona and U.S. secretary of the Interior; Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox; and former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg.
Although the firm is headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices throughout the world, including in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Brussels and Paris.
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