U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C./Photo by Michael A. Scarcella/ALM

Reuniting with her former colleagues, Kelly Cleary on Wednesday joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld as a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, returning to private practice from senior legal positions in the Department of Health and Human Services.

For the last three years, Cleary served as deputy general counsel at HHS and as chief legal officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, giving her front-line experience at agencies that are now grappling head-on with the coronavirus pandemic.

Within the past few weeks, CMS has changed, among other things, its guidance for how hospitals screen and stabilize the emergency cases they receive, a reflection of how medical providers have had to alter their protocols in an effort to halt the spread of the virus.

"While all of this new work transpired after I left, I'm hopeful that I will be able to help our clients understand some of the guidance that comes out, provide some perspective, help understand, synthesize and organize information that's coming out of my agency on an almost daily basis," Cleary said.

Kelly Cleary of Akin Gump (courtesy photo)

Like other incoming partners who have begun working at new firms within the past two weeks, Cleary is working from home. One of the reasons she rejoined Akin Gump, she said, is that the firm is "extremely supportive of the demands of having a successful career and a young family." Cleary has three children.

John Jacob, the head of Akin Gump's health care and life sciences practice, said the firm never imagined it would be reuniting with Cleary "at a time like this." Cleary's last day in government was March 5, a little more than a week before the Trump administration declared the spread of the coronavirus in the United States a national emergency.

"I don't remember working this hard truly across the practice. It's almost too hard," Jacob said. He noted that in her first day of work, Cleary took multiple client calls, and Cleary noted that as a firm alum, she can put "faces to names" in her phone calls with her Akin Gump colleagues.

Before joining the Trump administration in 2017, Cleary had been a lawyer at Akin Gump for nearly 10 years.

While some law firm health care practices may be particularly busy these days, the legal industry has already begun resorting to layoffs, pay freezes and other measures as the economic effects of the pandemic began to sink in. One legal consultant said multiple Am Law 100 firms are "close" to cutting partner draws within the next 30 days by as much as 50%.

Jacob said Akin Gump "hasn't yet made a decision to restrict hours in that way, restrict compensation or anything along those lines."

"I will say our March numbers, which just closed, were remarkably strong across the firm given where we are. Obviously we'll have to see how things progress over the next month as the crisis continues," he added.

Akin Gump closed out the last decade with 10 straight years of revenue increases; in 2019, the firm's top-line revenue increased by 5.9% to $1.14 billion. Akin Gump also continues to lead in federal lobbying revenues, billing $42.7 million for lobbying work in 2019, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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