Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison offices in Washington, D.C. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ NLJ

Jeannie Rhee, a leading prosecutor who served for two years on Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation team, is joining Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner in the firm's white-collar litigation practice in Washington.

Rhee had been one of three Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners to join Mueller's team in May 2017. Mueller had been a partner at the firm before his appointment as special counsel overseeing more than a dozen lawyers investigating the ties between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia and the president's purported efforts to obstruct the inquiry.

“We are delighted to welcome Jeannie, who brings unrivaled experience as one of the nation's leading white-collar and regulatory defense lawyers and as a first-chair trial lawyer,” Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said in a statement. “Jeannie's years of government service—as a senior Justice Department prosecutor, a member of the Mueller investigative team and an advisor to the U.S. Attorney General and to the White House—will be an invaluable asset to our clients.”

Rhee joined Mueller's team with then-Wilmer partners James Quarles and Aaron Zebley. Robert Novick, co-chairman of Wilmer, recently called Mueller, Quarles, Rhee and Zebley “highly valued partners and friends.” He added: “If they're interested in talking, we're certainly going to talk to people.”

Representatives from Wilmer did not immediately comment Friday.

On Mueller's team, Rhee was a top prosecutor in the case against three Russian firms and 13 individuals charged with carrying out an alleged campaign to sow discord within the U.S. electorate during the 2016 presidential election. Only one of the 16 defendants in that case, a Russian company called Concord Management and Consulting, has answered the charges in Washington's federal trial court.

Rhee was a mainstay in court over the past two years as the special counsel's case against Concord Management played out in front of U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich. The judge has issued several rulings that have kept the charges in place. The company, represented by Reed Smith partners Eric Dubelier and Katherine Seikaly, has pleaded not guilty.

In an interview, Rhee said she is “eager to go back to representing clients. It's something that I've done for a really long time.” She added: “It was really the opportunity to be part of a dynamic office in Washington, D.C., that is nevertheless part of the large powerhouse that is Paul Weiss. It's a terrific opportunity, and I couldn't turn it down.”

Jeannie Rhee. Courtesy photo.

Rhee reported receiving more than $3.5 million in partner compensation from Wilmer since 2016, according to federal ethics disclosures she filed in 2017 and in 2018. Rhee rejoined the firm in 2011 after a two-year stint at Main Justice, where she had been a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. The Yale Law School graduate first joined Wilmer in 2006 from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

“As an Asian-American woman, I am often not expected to be a fierce litigator,” Rhee said in a 2014 spotlight at The Diversity Journal. “It takes that extra effort on my part, when I meet with clients face-to-face, to have them see me in action to convey how my ethnicity, gender, stature, and the like do not at all prevent me from being a formidable advocate.”

Rhee is the latest high-profile partner hire at Paul Weiss.

Her arrival comes just weeks after former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch joined the firm as a partner in New York. In January, the heavyweight appellate lawyer Kannon Shanmugam left Williams & Connolly to become managing partner of Paul Weiss' growing Washington office.

“I think my vision for the office is that I want Paul Weiss to be the best place to be a litigator in D.C.,” Shanmugam told The National Law Journal in a recent interview. “I really want this to be the best little law firm in Washington, that's kind of how I think about it, and to have all of the benefits of a boutique-type practice within one of the world's greatest law firms.”

Other former members of Mueller's team are returning to law firms and other posts since the Russia investigation culminated in a 448-page report published in April. The investigation documented connections between Russia and Trump's presidential campaign, but prosecutors did not recommend criminal charges. Mueller's team also showed what they believed were obstructive acts taken by Trump to thwart the investigation. The report said that while no charges were being recommended, Trump was not being exonerated.

Another prosecutor on Mueller's team, Greg Andres, returned to Davis Polk & Wardwell earlier this year. Andres played a lead role in the prosecution of Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on charges related to his lobbying work for Ukraine. Manafort is serving a prison sentence of more than seven years for charges brought in Washington and in Virginia.

Michael Dreeben, who joined the Mueller team from the Justice Department's solicitor general's office, has announced plans to retire from government service. Dreeben, formerly a deputy solicitor general and one of the department's top criminal-law experts, has not said where he is going next. Dreeben has been a DOJ lawyer for some 30 years.

Andrew Weissmann, a former top fraud section prosecutor at Main Justice, has taken a post teaching at New York University School of Law. Weissmann, also formerly a Jenner & Block partner and general counsel to the FBI, is reportedly out with a book proposal, according to CNN. The book will recount Weissmann's work on Mueller's team, The New York Times reported Friday.

Mueller, meanwhile, has not announced his plans. He joined Wilmer in 2014 from the FBI, where he had served as director for more than a decade.

Read more:

Michael Dreeben, Deputy Solicitor and Top Mueller Lawyer, Ends DOJ Career

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch Joins Paul Weiss

Can Kannon Shanmugam Make Paul Weiss 'The Best Little Law Firm' in Washington?

Mueller Probe's Greg Andres Returns to Davis Polk

Where Will Robert Mueller and His Fellow Wilmer Alums Go Next?

Ryan Lovelace contributed reporting from Washington.