Elizabeth Prelogar (Courtesy photo)

Elizabeth Prelogar, a rising star at the U.S. solicitor general's office who also played a key role in Robert Mueller's special counsel team from 2017 to 2019, has left government to join the Cooley law firm as a litigation partner in Washington.

Prelogar, who departed from the solicitor's office in November after her seventh Supreme Court argument, starts work at Cooley today, with a goal of building a Supreme Court practice as well as tackling white-collar, technology, privacy and government investigation matters.

A former law clerk to Judge Merrick Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, as well as for Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan, Prelogar worked in private practice at Hogan Lovells before joining the solicitor general's office in 2014.

Prelogar was detailed to the Mueller probe as a legal adviser after then-deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben joined the team in 2017. When she made that move, Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells said, "Elizabeth is perhaps the best young lawyer with whom I have ever worked. She is brilliant, completely apolitical, and as by the book as they come. It's no surprise to me Mueller snapped her up."

When she returned to the solicitor general's office in March 2019, Prelogar said she was not treated any differently because of her role in the Mueller investigation.

"Actually, the SG's office was incredibly supportive of my detail and really made it a seamless transition," Prelogar said in an interview. "When I returned, I think the first day I got back in the office I was immediately loaded up with new court assignments." She added that she "felt entirely welcomed back to the office. It's a very hard office to leave."

Prelogar said her time working with Mueller's team will be beneficial to her new job. "One of the things that excites me is the opportunity to draw on my experience from the special counsel investigation," she said. "Cooley really has a fantastic white-collar and government investigations practice. I view this as a complementary practice, in the sense that there are often complex legal issues and strategic decisions that have to be made at the outset of an investigation long before any litigation or appeal."

Why did Prelogar pick Cooley, when she could have taken her pick of firms that specialize in Supreme Court practice? Andrew Goldstein, a colleague in the Mueller investigation who previously worked as a federal prosecutor and joined Cooley in June, was instrumental in recruiting her.

At lunch one day, Prelogar said Goldstein was describing the firm and why he went with it. "It just sounded, as he was talking, like it was an amazing firm with exactly the kind of culture where I felt like I would fit in, that very much appealed to me," Prelogar said.

Andrew Goldstein speaks at the New York City Bar in 2017. (Photo: David Handschuh/ ALM)

The Mueller team culture, she said, was "this spirit of collaboration during the investigation, where everyone worked very closely together. And it was a fast-moving investigation with a lot of moving parts." The tone set by Mueller himself, she added, was "focused on utmost professionalism and integrity. It was a special experience, and it's one that I hope to replicate in private practice."

Goldstein agreed that "the experience that we had working together on the Mueller team will shape all of our legal careers going forward in only good ways." Cooley's already-assembled white-collar practice and Prelogar's "once-in-a-generation legal mind," Goldstein added, "will be extremely attractive to clients."

Michael Attanasio, chairman of Cooley's global litigation department, said in a statement that Prelogar "is one of the country's preeminent appellate lawyers, and her capabilities will further bolster our rapidly expanding litigation team."

He continued: "Her experience writing impactful briefs and arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court, coupled with her highly regarded analytical skills and strategic savvy, will be invaluable assets to our clients as they confront increasingly complex litigation and regulatory challenges involving new technologies, privacy and enforcement."

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Cooley Lands Leading Mueller Prosecutor Andrew Goldstein

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Robert Mueller Returns to Wilmer as DC Partner