Daniel Coats, King & Spalding.

Former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has returned to King & Spalding, where he spent five years as a lobbyist before his 2010 reelection to the U.S. Senate.

Coats rejoins King & Spalding as a senior policy adviser on its national security team in Washington, D.C., which is part of the firm's government matters practice, the firm said Tuesday.

"As a former senator, diplomat and the point person on national intelligence, Dan has insight and relationships throughout the executive branch and on the Hill that will make a critical difference for our clients," said Wick Sollers, who heads King & Spalding's government matters practice, in a statement.

King & Spalding's chairman, Robert Hays, said in a statement that Coats will advise "clients who are making high-level strategic decisions and navigating evolving U.S. government expectations concerning national security protections."

Coats left his post as the National Intelligence Director on Aug. 15, following President Donald Trump's July 28 announcement via Twitter that Coats would depart by that date. During his tenure, Coats at times took public positions that conflicted with Trump's own statements, such as disagreements about Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and positions on North Korea and Iran.

Trump nominated Coats as the National Intelligence Director, who oversees all the agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence apparatus, in January 2017, when his Senate term expired, and he held the post since his confirmation in March 2017.

Trump initially named Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, as Coats' replacement, but that nomination quickly hit a snag over a controversy that Ratcliffe exaggerated his national security credentials. Joseph McGuire has served as the acting director since Aug. 16.

Coats was not available for an interview. At King & Spalding, he said in a statement, "I am looking forward to partnering with others to leverage my knowledge of the intelligence community." He added that the "opportunity to reconnect with peers in other practices and across industries made returning to King & Spalding an easy decision."

Coats had a long career in government. During the 1980s and 1990s he served as a Republican congressman and then senator from Indiana. After leaving the Senate in 1999, he worked for law and lobbying firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand (now part of DLA Piper) until 2001, when he became ambassador to Germany during President George W. Bush's administration.

In 2005 he joined King & Spalding as the co-chairman of its Washington, D.C., government relations practice until his reelection to the Senate in 2010.

Other Government Hires

Coats is King & Spalding's fifth senior hire this year from the Trump administration for its government matters practice.

In September alone, the firm added former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief of staff Zack Harmon, former FBI senior counsel Sumon Dantiki, and Marcella Burke from the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she was deputy solicitor for energy and natural resources. All three joined King & Spalding as partners.

That followed Stephen Vaughn's July return to King & Spalding as a partner after serving as the general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Also in September, Obama administration lawyer Alicia O'Brien joined King & Spalding's government matters practice as a partner from Venable, where she'd been since leaving the Department of Justice in 2017. O'Brien was deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legislative Affairs and an associate deputy attorney general under U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who joined King & Spalding in May 2018 after being fired by Trump a year earlier.