U.S. Capitol building

Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing began Tuesday with bitter dialogue among members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as Democrats protested they had been denied access to tens of thousands of pages pertinent to their review of President Donald Trump's nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.

Amid the pandemonium came a question from Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the committee's senior-most Democratic members: “Who is Bill Burck?”

“By what authority can he restrict the information given to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the American people? Is he a government employee? No one knew this mysterious Bill Burck, who is filtering these documents,” Durbin said, recalling questions he asked of Kavanaugh during their meeting.

The events of 2018 have made Burck, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, even more of a known quantity. Burck has been working with dozens of lawyers to review those records and transmit them to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some of those documents have been made public. Others, not so. Burck's team of lawyers, working for former President George W. Bush, designated some of the records “committee confidential.”

Burck, co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel's Washington office, is also representing White House counsel Donald McGahn along with at least a half dozen other current or former Trump aides in their dealings with the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. His name came up repeatedly Tuesday at Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, which is expected to last through the week. Democrats urged the Republicans to pause the proceeding to allow the full scope of records to be reviewed and released. “All of these documents will come out,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, vowed.

Republicans resisted Democrats' claims that they were being left in the dark about the full scope of Kavanaugh's work at the Bush White House, where he served as a counsel and staff secretary, the gatekeeper for information that reaches the president.

“No White House would allow every piece of paper that went to and from the president to be made public,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said. He called the documents “utterly irrelevant” to what Kavanaugh thinks or believes, and would only lead to a “fishing expedition” and an attempt to “distract and delay.”

Judiciary Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the document review of Bush's records complied with the Presidential Records Act, which gives former presidents the chance to review records before they are released. “The National Archives was not cut out of the process,” Grassley said.

Burck did not work alone in the document review process. His team included two Texas-based attorneys: Kirkland & Ellis partner Brigham Cannon and Evan Young, an Austin-based partner at Baker Botts. Cannon and Young did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“I get the interest in my popping up in some of the big issues of the day,” Burck told the New York Times in a recent profile. “But it's a mistake to believe lawyers are interesting because their clients are.”

William Burck of Quinn Emanuel. Credit: Diego M. Radzinsci / NLJ

Cannon joined Kirkland & Ellis in 2011 following a four-year stint at the U.S. Justice Department, where he was a trial attorney in the criminal division's fraud section. He was recognized for helping the investigation and prosecution of Lee Bentley Farkas, the former chairman of the private mortgage company Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, who was found guilty of orchestrating a nearly $3 billion fraud that contributed to the failure of Colonial Bank.

As a partner in Kirkland & Ellis' Houston office, Cannon has represented clients in investigations into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, along with health care and securities fraud. In 2016, he represented the generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. in a $520 million settlement with the Justice Department and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission resolving allegations that the company and its Russian subsidiary paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico.

Cannon last donated to a political campaign in 2012, when he contributed $350 to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential bid. He donated an additional $250 that year to a political action committee supporting Romney, who is now the Republican nominee to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Young is a former clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Following his clerkship, Young served from 2006 to 2008 as counsel to Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey.

Outside the Austin office of Baker Botts, where he is chairman of the litigation department, Young teaches at the University of Texas School of Law. He has taught “Federal Courts” since 2015, according to the school's website.

Earlier this year, Young filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to consider the deference courts give government agencies in enacting federal laws and regulations. Filed on behalf of trade groups, the brief asked the high court to “reevaluate the legitimacy of this doctrine” of deference, saying it had enable the “erosion of the judiciary's role in assessing executive assertions of authority.”

Young has also involved himself in Texas politics. In May, he contributed $1,000 to the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. John Carter, a Republican who represents the northern suburbs of Austin. Federal election disclosures show that Young has also donated in recent years to the campaigns of three other Texas Republicans: U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul, Bill Flores and Roger Williams.

Young is married to Tobi Young, a clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch. Before her clerkship, Tobi Young was counsel to the George W. Bush Presidential Library Center. Young formerly was the designated Presidential Records Act representative for Bush.

 

Read more:

Gorsuch Hires Native American Law Clerk, Likely First in SCOTUS History

Bannon, Priebus, McGahn: Bill Burck's White House Client Juggle

Protests, Complaints Mar Start of Kavanaugh's SCOTUS Hearing

New Book Tells Inside Stories of Feuding Justices, Anger Toward Trump

Covington's Jon Kyl Heading Back to U.S. Senate