{"id":120881,"date":"2025-05-29T13:04:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T21:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/29\/its-a-good-time-to-be-a-maga-lawyer\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T13:04:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T21:04:33","slug":"its-a-good-time-to-be-a-maga-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/29\/its-a-good-time-to-be-a-maga-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s A Good Time To Be A MAGA Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump II reign has come with new legal wrinkles (many of them unconstitutional) as Donald Trump is taking the hint from<\/a> Project 2025 and trying to radically remake the nation in the image of conservatives. As with any massive policy change, that\u2019s led to a run on legal services <\/a>as clients try to navigate exactly what the law is. But the Trump administration is also running on vibes with folks <\/a>with a history of loyalty to the cause receiving benefits<\/a>, regardless of actual experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And that means law firms with MAGA ties are doing great. Both\u00a0Skadden and Davis Polk<\/a>\u00a0hired Miller Strategies, staffed by Trump fundraiser Jeff Miller and former Trump White House lawyer Stefan Passantino, for lobbying efforts. Kirkland and Simpson Thacher each\u00a0hired Ballard Partners<\/a>, a lobbying firm founded by a top Trump fundraiser, before capitulating to Trump.\u00a0And Hogan Lovells also turned to MAGA-adjacent advisers to navigate the changing legal landscape.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hunter Bates, co-leader of Akin Gump\u2019s lobbying and public policy practice,\u00a0told Law.com<\/a>, \u201cHaving a deep roster of Republican advisers in a moment like this\u2014where you have GOP control of the House, Senate and White House\u2014has led to an even busier period than we otherwise could have imagined.\u201d And Akin is on an \u201caggressive hiring spree\u201d\u00a0of folks with MAGA bona fides, most recently snatching up Kelly Ann Shaw who served as deputy assistant to the president for international economics in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

And Morrison Cohen, a firm led in part by former Trump real estate attorney Y. David Scharf, is also making moves to cash in on the windfall for Republican attorneys. The firm launched a\u00a0government strategies and controversies practice to help clients \u201cnavigating public policy, regulatory compliance and government relations strategy.\u201d Scharf said, \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now in terms of demand is certainly an uptick, and I think it\u2019s driven partially by people looking for guidance and understanding, which is something that we have a unique perspective and ability to be able to deliver.\u201d He continued, noting the firm\u2019s deep connections to MAGAland are helping the firm in this tumultuous time, \u201cWe have that ability with the current administration with long-standing, deep ties that start at the top and work their way through various members of the cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the administration\u2019s controlling mandate is vibes, not the Constitution or the rule of law, then who you know is a lot more important than what you know.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post It\u2019s A Good Time To Be A MAGA Lawyer<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Trump II reign has come with new legal wrinkles (many of them unconstitutional) as Donald Trump is taking the hint from<\/a> Project 2025 and trying to radically remake the nation in the image of conservatives. As with any massive policy change, that\u2019s led to a run on legal services <\/a>as clients try to navigate exactly what the law is. But the Trump administration is also running on vibes with folks <\/a>with a history of loyalty to the cause receiving benefits<\/a>, regardless of actual experience<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And that means law firms with MAGA ties are doing great. Both\u00a0Skadden and Davis Polk<\/a>\u00a0hired Miller Strategies, staffed by Trump fundraiser Jeff Miller and former Trump White House lawyer Stefan Passantino, for lobbying efforts. Kirkland and Simpson Thacher each\u00a0hired Ballard Partners<\/a>, a lobbying firm founded by a top Trump fundraiser, before capitulating to Trump.\u00a0And Hogan Lovells also turned to MAGA-adjacent advisers to navigate the changing legal landscape.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hunter Bates, co-leader of Akin Gump\u2019s lobbying and public policy practice,\u00a0told Law.com<\/a>, \u201cHaving a deep roster of Republican advisers in a moment like this\u2014where you have GOP control of the House, Senate and White House\u2014has led to an even busier period than we otherwise could have imagined.\u201d And Akin is on an \u201caggressive hiring spree\u201d\u00a0of folks with MAGA bona fides, most recently snatching up Kelly Ann Shaw who served as deputy assistant to the president for international economics in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

And Morrison Cohen, a firm led in part by former Trump real estate attorney Y. David Scharf, is also making moves to cash in on the windfall for Republican attorneys. The firm launched a\u00a0government strategies and controversies practice to help clients \u201cnavigating public policy, regulatory compliance and government relations strategy.\u201d Scharf said, \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now in terms of demand is certainly an uptick, and I think it\u2019s driven partially by people looking for guidance and understanding, which is something that we have a unique perspective and ability to be able to deliver.\u201d He continued, noting the firm\u2019s deep connections to MAGAland are helping the firm in this tumultuous time, \u201cWe have that ability with the current administration with long-standing, deep ties that start at the top and work their way through various members of the cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the administration\u2019s controlling mandate is vibes, not the Constitution or the rule of law, then who you know is a lot more important than what you know.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump II reign has come with new legal wrinkles (many of them unconstitutional) as Donald Trump is taking the hint from Project 2025 and trying to radically remake the nation in the image of conservatives. As with any massive policy change, that\u2019s led to a run on legal services as clients try to navigate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-LCR8pg.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}