Law Firm to the Cabinet Stars

Newspapers have been categorizing President Obama’s Cabinet and staff selections as Clintonites or Chicagoans. But there is one other connection that unites many.

• Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama’s pick for secretary of State, is a longtime client of DC power law firm Williams & Connolly. It represented both Clinton and her husband during the Whitewater investigation and his impeachment and masterminded the record advances both Clintons have received for their books.

• Williams & Connolly handled Larry Summers’s acrimonious departure as dean of Harvard Law School President of Harvard. Summers is now Obama’s chief on the National Economic Council.

• Paul Volcker, Obama’s other top economic adviser, is also a W&C client.

• Gregory Craig, Obama’s White House counsel, handled the sensitive report on Obama’s contacts with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Craig is a longtime partner at Williams & Connolly.

• Tom Daschle, Obama’s new Health and Human Services secretary, is a former W&C client; former wife Laurie Fulton is a partner at Williams & Connolly.

• Williams & Connolly represented Eric Holder, Obama’s choice for attorney general, in connection with a controversial business deal.

• Elena Kagan, solicitor-general designee and a likely choice for the next vacancy on the Supreme Court, is a former lawyer at Williams & Connolly.

• Cynthia Hogan, chosen as legal adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden, is a former lawyer at Williams & Connolly.

• Sanjay Gupta, probably the next Surgeon General of the United States, has been represented in contract negotiations with CNN by lawyers from Williams & Connolly.

• Obama himself is a Williams & Connolly client, as is the First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Williams & Connolly does not yet represent daughters Malia and Sasha, though when they decide to write their first book about growing up with a cute dog, want to guess who will broker the deal?

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This article first appeared in the February 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here. 

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Kim Eisler