Headquarters | 680 Maine Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. United States [1] |
---|---|
No. of offices | 1 |
No. of attorneys | 300–400 |
Major practice areas | Litigation |
Date founded | 1967 |
Founder |
|
Company type | LLP |
Website | www |
Williams & Connolly LLP is an American law firm based in Washington, D.C. known for its specialization in white-collar crime defense. The firm was co-founded by Edward Bennett Williams and Paul Connolly in 1967. Williams left the partnership of D.C. firm Hogan & Hartson to launch his own litigation firm.
High-profile cases include the successful defense of U.S. President Clinton's impeachment, representation of Enron's law firm Vinson & Elkins, representation of the motion picture studios in the Kazaa/Grokster file-trading litigation, defense of the Vioxx cases, and counsel for the plaintiff states in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust remedy trial. The firm represented Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North during the Iran-Contra Affair and John Hinckley, the would-be assassin of Ronald Reagan. [2] [3] [4]
Williams & Connolly partner Robert Barnett has represented Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, James Patterson, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Bob Woodward, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Alan Greenspan, Katharine Graham, Ben Bernanke, Paul Ryan, Tim Russert, Barbra Streisand, Jack Welch, Khaled Hosseini, Bill Walton, Mitch McConnell, Jake Tapper, and others. [5] [6] The firm also represented Elizabeth Holmes in her Theranos criminal trial.
The firm's corporate clients include Google, Disney, Samsung, Intel, Bank of America, The Carlyle Group, Medtronic, Genentech, Eli Lilly, Halkbank, and 21st Century Fox. [7]
According to ESPN, the University of Michigan retained Williams & Connolly to consult the University in connection with the alleged opponents’ play signal decoding scandal involving the Michigan football program.
In 2021, Vault.com ranked Williams & Connolly as the #1 firm for White Collar Defense and Internal Investigation in the United States, and the #2 law firm in Washington, DC. [8] Williams & Connolly was ranked in 2021 as the most selective law firm in the country. [9] Williams & Connolly is the subject of Masters of the Game: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Firm by Kim Eisler. [10]
Prominent alumni of the firm include:
Over the past decade, 45 Supreme Court clerks have been full-time or summer associates with Williams & Connolly. [19] [20] Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh are both alumni of the firm. [21]
An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869.
O'Melveny & Myers LLP is an American multinational law firm founded in Los Angeles, California in 1885. The firm employs approximately 740 lawyers and has offices in California, Washington, D.C., New York City, Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.
David Evan Kendall is an American attorney, a graduate of Wabash College, Yale Law School, and Worcester College, Oxford, who clerked with Supreme Court Justice Byron White, worked as associate counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and has been a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP of Washington, DC since 1981, where he has provided legal counsel to individuals and corporations on high-profile business and political matters.
Miguel Angel Estrada Castañeda is a Honduran-American attorney who became embroiled in controversy following his 2001 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Senate Democrats, unable to block his nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party took control of the U.S. Senate in 2002, used a filibuster for the first time to prevent his nomination from being given a final confirmation vote by the full Senate.
Elena Kagan is an American lawyer who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and is the fourth woman to serve on the Court.
Daniel Julius Meltzer was an American lawyer and law professor who taught at Harvard Law School. He worked in the Obama Administration as Principal Deputy Counsel from January 2009 through June 1, 2010.
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American appellate lawyer and professor of law. He is a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm and is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Martin Edward Whelan III is an American lawyer, legal activist and political commentator. Whelan's legal career included clerking for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and serving as a deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. From 2004 to 2021, he served as the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank "dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy".
Frederick Whitten Peters is a District of Columbia lawyer and senior level public official. His law practice specializes in civil and criminal litigation including contract fraud, antitrust, tax and security cases. He has served in several key positions within the U.S. federal government, including as Secretary of the Air Force.
Teresa Wynn Roseborough is an American lawyer, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Clinton administration and is the executive vice president and general counsel at The Home Depot. She used to be Deputy General Counsel at MetLife, where she at one point led a department of 62 associates and supervised MetLife's litigation activities worldwide.
Robert B. Barnett is an American lawyer who is a partner at the law firm Williams & Connolly.
Patti Barbara Saris is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is also the former chair of the United States Sentencing Commission.
On May 10, 2010, President Barack Obama announced his selection of Elena Kagan for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan's nomination was confirmed by a 63–37 vote of the United States Senate on August 5, 2010. When nominated, Kagan was Solicitor General of the United States, a position to which Obama had appointed her in March 2009. Kagan was the first Supreme Court nominee since Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 to not be a sitting circuit court judge and the most recent such nominee as of 2023. She was the first Supreme Court nominee since William Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell Jr. in 1971 to not be a sitting judge on any court.
The Concord Fund is an American conservative advocacy organization. Its president is Carrie Severino, a former law clerk for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. In 2020, OpenSecrets described the organization as having "unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary." It is among a network of organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a co-chair of the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors, with funding distributed by Concord and a related group, The 85 Fund.
Allison Blair Jones Rushing is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since March 2019.
Max Ian Stier is an American attorney who serves as the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.
Sharon McGowan is an American lawyer and a partner at Katz Banks Kumin LLP, an employment and whistleblower firm based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining KBK, she was the legal director and chief strategy officer for Lambda Legal. McGowan was an Obama administration appointee in the role of Acting General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel for Policy at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. She also served as Principal Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice. In 2019, she was honored with the Stonewall Award, bestowed by the American Bar Association's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar (born March 7, 1980; née Elizabeth Margaret Barchas is an American lawyer who has served as solicitor general of the United States since October 2021, making her the fourth highest ranking individual in the United States Department of Justice. Prior to this, she served as acting solicitor general from January 20, 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, until President Joe Biden sent her nomination to the U.S. Senate on August 11, 2021.
Lisa Schiavo Blatt is an American lawyer known for her advocacy before the Supreme Court of the United States. As of October 15, 2024, she has argued before the Supreme Court 51 times—the most of any woman in U.S. history. She is a partner at the law firm Williams & Connolly and chairs the firm's Supreme Court and appellate practice. She previously worked as an appellate lawyer for the U.S. government in the Office of the Solicitor General and later chaired the Supreme Court and appellate practice at the law firm Arnold & Porter.