BigLaw to Biden Admin. Shutterstock.com/Courtesy Photos Shutterstock.com/Courtesy Photos. Design by David Palmer/ALM


Goodbye Jones Day and Kirkland & Ellis, hello Latham & Watkins, O'Melveny & Myers and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

These three firms have emerged as key feeders of talent as the Biden Administration continues to fill open spots in the White House, Justice Department and other federal agencies, often tapping Obama Administration veterans. Meanwhile, lawyers from Jones Day and Kirkland, who had an outsize impact on the composition of the Trump Administration, have largely been left out so far.

Wilmer has pointed five partners toward the Biden Administration, led by Alejandro Mayorkas, who was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday as Secretary of Homeland Security. A former Obama-era DHS official who's been a partner at the firm since 2016, Mayorkas will be the sole member of President Joe Biden's cabinet to come directly from Big Law.