After nearly eight years as the American Civil Liberties Union’s national legal director, David Cole will soon be returning to the faculty of Georgetown Law and handing over legal strategy at arguably the country’s most influential civil rights group to a successor.

Now 65, Cole presided over a high-octane period at the ACLU, assuming the position at the start of the Donald Trump presidency and launching immediately into litigation over the so-called Muslim ban, and a host of other Trump administration policies. The group would ultimately file more than 400 legal actions against the administration.