Noel Francisco, Solicitor General of the United States, during a fireside chat at the 2019 ABA Southeastern White Collar Crime Institute, September 6th 2019. Noel Francisco (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

After three years as U.S. solicitor general, Noel Francisco will rejoin Jones Day, the firm announced Wednesday.

Francisco is rejoining the firm's government regulation practice in Washington, D.C., which he chaired before his departure. He previously practiced at Jones Day from 2005-2017, after which President Donald Trump appointed him to the solicitor general role.

Jones Day said he will rejoin the firm around Jan. 1, 2021. Francisco had officially announced his departure in June, effective July 3.

"As one of the premier Supreme Court advocates in the country, Noel will bolster the Firm's already strong bench of appellate lawyers, 13 of whom have collectively argued more than 50 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court," said Kevyn D. Orr, partner-in-charge of Jones Day's Washington, D.C., office, in a statement.

Francisco reported earning more than $6.6 million in partner compensation from Jones Day in the two years before joining the Trump administration in 2017, financial disclosures show. Francisco was part of a wave of Jones Day lawyers who early on joined the Trump administration in key leadership roles.

After he was sworn in as solicitor general on Sept. 19, 2017, Francisco argued 17 cases in the Supreme Court, including successfully defending Trump's travel restriction orders affecting countries deemed to be security risks (Trump v. Hawaii); successfully absolving the First Amendment rights of employees who do not join unions (Janus v. AFSCME); lessening obstacles of property owners who seek to bring claims for government takings of private property (Knick v. Township of Scott); and successfully arguing agency interpretations of their own regulations should be given less judicial deference (Kisor v. Wilkie).

His record at the Supreme Court has been mixed, however. He lost efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census and to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The justices also recently turned back the solicitor's effort to wall off Trump's financial records from investigators.

During his first tenure at Jones Day, Francisco successfully argued several cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, including McDonnell v. United States, where the court unanimously overturned the governor of Virginia's federal bribery conviction, and NLRB v. United States, where the court unanimously limited the president's constitutional recess appointment powers.

Earlier in his career, Francisco served as associate counsel to President George W. Bush from 2001-2003; deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2005; and a law clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Mike Scarcella contributed to this report.