Giuliani Joins Trump Legal Team, Takes Leave from Greenberg Traurig
The former New York mayor will serve as a personal lawyer for the president.
April 19, 2018 at 05:54 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The American Lawyer
Rudy Giuliani is joining President Donald Trump's legal team in the special counsel investigation, leading to another leave of absence from Greenberg Traurig.
“Mr. Giuliani is taking a leave of absence, effective today, for an unspecified period of time to handle matters unrelated to the law firm or its clients,” said Richard Rosenbaum, executive chairman of Greenberg Traurig, in a statement Thursday.
Several news reports on Thursday afternoon cited interviews, including with Giuliani himself, confirming his plans to join Trump's legal team as part of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller related to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
Giuliani, a vocal Trump ally in the 2016 elections, would join Jay Sekulow and Ty Cobb in representing the president. According to several media reports, Jane Serene Raskin and Marty Raskin, a couple who run a Florida-based law firm, would also be joining the Trump team.
Many Am Law 100 firms have declined offers to join the president's legal team, including in recent weeks prominent partners at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Winston & Strawn. Last month prominent Washington, D.C., attorney John Dowd, a former Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner, resigned from his role on Trump's lineup.
In 2016, Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, earlier took a leave of absence to work on the Trump campaign before returning to the firm.
In a statement issued by Sekulow and appearing in news reports, Trump said “Rudy is great” and has been in his friend “for a long time and wants to get this matter quickly resolved for the good of the country.”
According to Sekulow's statement, Giuliani said it is “an honor to be a part of such an important legal team, and I look forward to not only working with the President but with Jay, Ty, and their colleagues.”
In a Washington Post interview, Giuliani said he has been speaking with Trump for weeks about joining.
Giuliani, a former U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989, has been law firm colleagues with another U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, who left Greenberg to become the top Manhattan federal prosecutor in January. Trump personally interviewed Berman for the role, according to media reports.
Less than two weeks ago, the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District raided the home and office of Michael Cohen, a longtime personal attorney for Trump. Shortly after, it was revealed that Berman had recused himself from the Cohen investigation. Deputy U.S. attorney Robert Khuzami, a former Kirkland & Ellis partner, is now in charge of the investigation, court documents show.
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