Jones Day has been welcomed by many lawyers in the Trump administration since the beginning of the year, sealing the reputation that the Midwestern company has had as a major player in Republican party politics.
The return of Jones Day partners began in earnest in April 2019 when Don McGahn returned to the office of 2,500 attorneys in Cleveland, Ohio, after becoming Donald Trump’s first White House adviser.
Between January and March this year, Jones Day hosted at least seven more attorneys from federal agencies in the White House and Justice Department, according to company announcements. Eighteen Jones day lawyers worked for the Trump administration, according to ProPublic.
Some of the lawyers who returned were given higher positions than on Jones Day, emphasizing the links between the Trump movement and the company, lawyers and contractors said. These include McGahn, who currently heads the government’s regulatory team, and Noel Francisco, a former U.S. attorney general, who heads the company’s Washington office.
According to federal records, Jones Day has earned more than $ 25 million from the Trump campaign, a group associated with the former president and the Republican National Committee since 2015. However, in the 2020 election after disputes over postal votes in the 2020 election, he replaced the Pennsylvania Republican Party. , the company said in a blog post that it did not “represent President Trump, his campaign or any affiliated party in any lawsuit alleging voter fraud.”
Jones Day declined to comment.
Two former Jones Day attorneys say many of the company’s attorneys have felt uncomfortable because of Trump’s close ties to the world. Last year, the Parker Rider-Longmaid association wrote to colleagues to express concern that Jones Day was giving “prestige and credibility to an administration project aimed at harming our democracy,” according to the New York Times. In February this year he sided with rival Skadden Arps.
Jones Day has also had a number of high-profile departures in recent years – including antitrust David Wales to Skadden and real estate partner Michael Haas to Latham & Watkins in 2018; restructuring partner Scott Greenberg to Gibson Dunnera in 2019; and corporate partner Ferdinand Mason to White & Case in March.
However, legal contractors and the company’s former attorneys have said Jones Day’s ties to Trump will not affect the options of a company that has replaced clients from Procter & Gamble, RJ Reynolds, McDonald’s, Chevron and Goldman Sachs from the National Rifle Association. .
“Jones Day has been around for a long time and represents all kinds of clients in all sorts of places,” said Mark Jungers, the chief hunter at U.S. elite law firms. “It simply came to our notice then. . . It’s not necessarily a kind of stain forever, and it doesn’t have to be a stain. “
Jones Day, who took over the UK company Gouldens in 2003, is managing partner Stephen Brogan, one of America’s most powerful lawyers and one of the only seven leaders in the company’s 130-year history. The plaintiff, who is in his late 60s, has tremendous discretion in naming his successor – an unusual feature for law firms as he is a well-known board member.
Although Kirkland & Ellis ’network of alumni in the Trump administration is only a priority last year — last year the highest law firm in the world — not all of Jones Day’s lawyers are in favor of Republicans. Most of the donations from Jones Day lawyers he went to the DemocratIn 2020 than Republicans, according to the Opensecrets research group.
Jones Day XIX. It was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in the 19th century, and its name became representative of the Midwest industrial business, including Standard Oil. It has become a Washington powerhouse, where its prominence symbolizes the proximity of the U.S. Capitol office.
The company’s involvement in Republican politics has been around for decades. One of the company’s attorneys advised Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. He also defended Ronald Reagan in 1980 in an attempt to prevent him from receiving $ 29.4 million in federal election funds.
The company’s relationship with Trump was McGahn, 52, who met a real estate developer in 2014 and joined the White House offer in 2015 when victory seemed impossible. McGahn, a product from Atlantic City, New Jersey, had family connections with the future president through his uncle Patrick “Paddy” McGahn, a lawyer who helped Trump cut deals at the coastal gaming center in the 1980s.
The company tends to outperform the top league tables rather than by volume. Unlike opponents like “white shoes” on the east coast like Cravath, Swaine and Moore, who set the U.S. salary, Jones Day will likely hire Notre Dame as likely as the Ivy League.
Brogan graduated from Notre Dame Law School and earned a bachelor’s degree from McGahn.
Jones Day is hidden, especially when it comes to compensation, as it varies a lot between lawyers. Its capital partners took an average of $ 1.3 million last year, and another 71 attorneys were placed behind the U.S. ranking of U.S. law firms. It was the 10th largest in terms of revenue, generating about $ 2.2 billion.
“Jones Day is one of those companies that is very opaque looking outward. Inside, the couple’s compensation is a complete black box,” said Bruce MacEwen, founder of consulting firm Adam Smith Esquire. “No one knows what anyone else is doing, or how their compensation is determined. At the end of the year you will get a visit ordering what your company will be like and you will not dare to ask questions. “