After 20 years of working behind the scenes in government, John Abegg, chief counsel to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has decided to join the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in Washington, D.C.

Abegg will become executive vice president of the institute on May 13, replacing Harold Kim, who was promoted to chief operating officer, according to an institute announcement. It said Abegg will provide “advocacy, strategy, policy guidance and management expertise.”

He is no stranger to political legal brawls. After a controversial Senate hearing when Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice last October, McConnell thanked his staff, especially Abegg, “my chief counsel and right-hand man for every step of this process.”

McConnell went on to say, “For 15 weeks, John poured his determination, his experience, and his wisdom into this process. He started working the moment Justice [Anthony] Kennedy announced he was stepping down and did not stop until the gavel fell. We wouldn't be here without his work.”

Abegg also played a key role when Senate Republicans sought to overturn President Barack Obama's three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012.

He helped the Republicans form a legal partnership with Noel Canning, a soft-drink bottling company that the labor board said had engaged in an unfair labor practice. Backed by the Republican senators and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Noel Canning sued to reverse the labor ruling and won a unanimous decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that Obama's recess appointments to the board violated the U.S. Constitution.

For the case, Abegg worked with Miguel Estrada, the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner who wrote the Senate Republicans' amicus brief. It was sweet political revenge for Abegg and Estrada, who was the federal appeals court nominee blocked from the bench by a Senate Democrats' filibuster in 2002. One of Abegg's ongoing assignments was to guide judge nominations through the judiciary committee and on to confirmation, but he was without a legal move to stop the filibuster.

Besides overseeing the confirmation process for the last six Supreme Court justices, Abegg also helped with the passing of multiple civil justice measures sought by corporations, including institute-backed class action reform.

Institute president Lisa Rickard said in a statement, “John has been one of the Hill's most effective and well respected lawyers for almost 20 years. John's vast knowledge of legal reform will ensure that [the institute] is equipped to take on new challenges as leading advocates for the business community.”

Abegg told Corporate Counsel he chose to join the institute's legal team because “the Chamber has been the foremost advocate for the free market system in this country, and the foremost advocate for assuring a properly functioning legal system for the free market to work.”

He said he has worked with the institute's legal team through the years, believes in its mission and was impressed with its people. His first priority, he said, will be sitting down with the legal team members, “learning their capabilities and helping them advance their goals.”

One strength he brings to the job, Abegg said, is the relationships he developed with the private sector and in all three branches of government.

“I've served in all three branches,” he said, “and I can appreciate the roles and capabilities, as well as the limitations, of all three. That helps me see issues from different perspectives and to solve different legal problems—by [recognizing] whether they are best solved in the courts, the executive branch or the Legislature.”

His work with the Senate Judiciary Committee also included working on corporate privacy measures, legal technology issues, immigration and antitrust matters, he said.

Before working in McConnell's office, Abegg served as legal adviser to a Federal Election Commissioner from 1998 to 1999. He previously was in private practice for five years with the conservative Indianapolis law firm Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom, focusing on election law and campaign finance litigation. The firm later evolved into the Bopp Law Firm.

Abegg received his law degree from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and went on to clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

“I had a long and rewarding career in government service,” Abegg said. He added that the opportunity to join the institute's legal team “presented itself and I was excited to pursue it. There's no other place I'd rather begin the next chapter of my career.”