DOJ’s Fiercest Opponent Is Last of Its Kind as Industry Shifts

Williams & Connolly has become a Washington institution by bucking industry norms and waging war with the Justice Department.

The firm hardly ever hires federal prosecutors, who are courted heavily by other top white-collar defense shops seeking inroads at DOJ. It generally doesn’t poach lawyers from competitors and seldom loses attorneys to rivals, even as prominent partners elsewhere increasingly hop firms for larger paychecks. Operating out of a single office in Washington, it keeps its partnership roll short.

Williams & Connolly’s lawyers often thrive by putting the conduct of the prosecutors they go up against on trial, a tactic made easier by the scarcity of DOJ alumni in its own ranks. That’s attracted a well-financed, if niche, pool of clients that currently includes tech giants Google and, Amazon Inc., and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.

Now the firm is caught in the middle of an industry in fast transition: the country’s largest law firms are growing at a rapid pace with major players turning to the federal government’s revolving door to pad their rosters. Some of Williams & Connolly’s former lawyers and other industry observers question just how long it can maintain a culture born in the 1970s.

“The firm sprang out of an earlier era,” said Paul Dueffert, a veteran partner at Williams & Connolly, who left in 2020. “What has changed since then is that the white-collar world is much more professionalized. Every other firm is constantly poaching DOJ lawyers.”

Touting itself as a shop of entirely career defense lawyers, as Williams & Connolly promotes on its website, makes for “a tougher sell than it used to be,” said Dueffert, who is one of 16 Williams & Connolly veterans who spoke about the firm in interviews.

The firm, which rarely speaks with the press, declined requests for on-the-record interviews. It provided answers to questions in writing via a current firm source, on condition of anonymity.

“Our model of training the best lawyers to serve our clients has passed the test of time,” the Williams & Connolly source said.

“The changing legal landscape has not impacted our approach to growing our own talent, without lateral partners, in a single office. We have never lost a top business generator, and the firm has never been busier.”

Williams & Connolly lawyers advised a former Wells Fargo executive who in September avoided prison for her role in the bank’s false accounts scandal. Three months later, the firm convinced the US Supreme Court to consider overturning an Indiana mayor’s bribery conviction, which the justices appeared inclined to do during oral arguments April 15.

‘Full on Fight’

Top white collar defense firms laud their partners’ years of DOJ experience, as well as the insight and access that come with it. Williams & Connolly markets its lawyers as unconstrained in battling the department.

“I’ve certainly referred many people there—it just has to be the right kind of individual client,” said Matt Herrington, a veteran white collar attorney who left Williams & Connolly in 2004. “You go there if you want a full on fight for every inch of territory.”

The firm is known for defending criminal cases by filing a deluge of motions and routinely lodging misconduct complaints to judges about federal prosecutors. It has carefully cultivated an image for fighting to the end without settling, even if that’s not always the case.

The firm’s successful defense of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) highlights its approach. Brendan Sullivan, a protege of firm founder Edward Bennett Williams, and others exposed misconduct by prosecutors in the high-profile corruption case.

Stevens initially was found guilty on multiple counts of receiving unreported gifts, including renovations on his home. He was later exonerated after his lawyers showed that prosecutors withheld key evidence.

The saga left DOJ with a black eye, prompting the agency to overhaul its evidence production standards. It also resulted in two scathing reports about the prosecution team—two members of which were briefly suspended, while another died by suicide before the reports published.

Paying Lawyers

Former Williams & Connolly attorneys, most of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly, offered a mix of admiration at how the firm has found success in a narrow lane and contemplation over whether it’s time to adapt.

The firm’s profits per equity partner surpassed $2.7 million in 2022, according to American Lawyer data, a figure that has more than doubled in the last decade.

Its profits are well below the more than $5 million seen on average at Big Law behemoths like Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and Paul Weiss. Those firms combine lucrative deals practices, in which partners can make north of $10 million per year, with deep litigation benches that feature high-level DOJ alumni.

Quinn Emanuel—which, like Williams & Connolly, is known for litigation—also tops $5 million in profits per equity partner.

Several major firms have tinkered with partner pay systems in recent years to reward rainmakers in the mergers and acquisitions and private equity spaces. They’ve walked away from strict seniority-based compensation and increased the spread between the highest- and lowest-paid partners.

Two former Williams & Connolly attorneys say the firm’s approach to compensation, with a small gap between the highest and lowest-paid partners, has helped cultivate a tight-knit culture that’s unique compared to many peers.

Williams & Connolly never comments on compensation, the firm source said in the prepared statement. Its culture and “our commitment to one another as colleagues and friends seals a far more enduring bond than money ever could,” the person said.

The firm source rejected the notion its style is monolithic or has hurt business. Williams & Connolly still generates a significant share of revenue from civil litigation that never involves federal prosecutors.

“For some cases, we need the war department. For some cases we need the state department,” the source said. “It is always about doing what is best for the client.”

Exposing Misconduct

Interviews with former Williams & Connolly attorneys and federal prosecutors portray the firm’s contentious and often complicated history with the Justice Department.

Sullivan, still a senior partner at 82, has long embodied the firm’s combative approach. He rose to national prominence in his defense of Oliver North during the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. That was shortly after he and Barry Simon, who remains his colleague, uncovered a federal prosecutor doctoring documents, leading a judge to dismiss tax crime charges in 1986 against their client, a jet leasing company. The prosecutor later resigned.

Brendan Sullivan

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sullivan and other lawyers cemented their reputation in 2009 by securing the dismissal of the Stevens case, and fighting off stock fraud charges against Broadcom co-founder and former CEO Henry Nicholas. Just like Stevens, a judge dismissed charges against Nicholas due to prosecutors’ improprieties.

Despite their reputation, the lawyers have in some cases relied on a more collaborative approach with DOJ in order to serve clients.

They’ve negotiated plea deals and other settlements with DOJ—often to achieve favorable outcomes for clients—without leaving a paper trail, said four attorneys familiar with the situations. The lawyers recalled instances when prosecutors would send over a guilty plea, only to have it returned with the senior partner’s name crossed out and replaced with a more junior attorney.

The firm source called this accounting “completely untrue.”

Three of those who recalled it said they felt the strategy was at least in part to preserve the firm’s hallmark of relentless trial advocacy.

That identity continues to appeal to particular clients.

Take real estate mogul Nate Paul—a close ally of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who was indicted twice last year by federal prosecutors in Austin, Texas. The developer, whose relationship with the state’s AG was central to his impeachment proceedings and who previously sued the FBI for raiding his home and office, was hit with a superseding indictment in November. The four new counts of wire fraud escalated the case’s stakes ahead of a trial later this year.

Paul retained Williams & Connolly in January, after his prior attorneys, including an ex-DOJ fraud supervisor, withdrew from the matter. Paul, through his local counsel Gerry Morris, declined to comment on why he sought out the firm.

DOJ Reacts

To this day, DOJ attorneys know they’re in for a struggle when they hear that someone they want to talk to has lawyered up with Williams & Connolly.

Bloomberg Law spoke with 16 former department officials and prosecutors from across the country. Some said W&C lawyers can be needlessly antagonistic in style, but don’t cross the line into playing dirty. A few said they’d relish the challenge of going up against them in court, even if it means an onslaught of motions.

Several of the prosecutors said Williams & Connolly would be at the top of their list if they ever found themselves in trouble and money wasn’t an issue. Others who’ve gone up against the firm said its tough reputation isn’t always earned.

The tension sometimes carries over once prosecutors are ready to join the defense bar.

One Washington recruiter who works with government officials moving back to private practice said some attorneys have told her they didn’t like the way the firm practiced and had no interest in working there.

A short list of lawyers has rejoined the firm after stints at DOJ. They mostly include people such as the Supreme Court litigator Lisa Blatt, who worked in non-prosecutorial positions at the department. One notable exception is Malachi Jones, now Williams & Connolly’s chief diversity partner, who returned to the firm in 2005 after five years at the department as a civil rights prosecutor.

Succession Plans

Sullivan still represents clients, but is said to have made way for other Williams & Connolly lifers guiding the ship.

Joe Petrosinelli, now the firm’s chair, grew up at Williams & Connolly. So did John Schmidtlein and Dane Butswinkas, who are also on its executive committee. The firm has long had a practice of placing a younger partner on its six-person executive committee. Beth Stewart, a litigator who joined the firm a year after graduating from law school in 2005, was named to the committee in February.

In 2020 Williams & Connolly saw two practice group leaders leave to join Latham, a firm with more than 3,000 attorneys, and the second-largest by revenue in the country. Another former practice head left around the same time for Quinn Emanuel. The firm has, however, not faced any notable defections since then.

“Litigation shops are doing fine,” said Jon Lindsey, a managing partner at legal search firm Major Lindsey & Africa. “When people stop suing each other, maybe they’ll be in trouble.”

The firm’s criminal defense and government investigations practice co-chairs—David Zinn and Tobin Romero—have been at the firm for nearly 60 years combined.

Still, one former Williams & Connolly attorney turned prosecutor said it remains to be seen whether the next generation of the firm can maintain its success by sticking to the rigid, hardball approach that’s made it among Washington’s most fearsome players.

“It’s an open question,” he said, “as to whether or not you can pull that off without pulling in more DOJ folks and going a more traditional route if and when Brendan retires.”

—With assistance from Ryan Autullo