Abbe Lowell Launches Firm to Defend Trump-Targeted Officials (1)

Criminal defense lawyer Abbe Lowell formally launched a new firm to represent government officials and other parties targeted by the Trump administration, he said in an announcement Friday.

Lowell, who is representing New York Attorney General Letitia James in a federal mortgage fraud investigation, left Winston & Strawn to launch the new firm. Two Winston associates—David Kolansky and Isabella Oishi—will join with him in the coming days. Kolansky worked with Lowell defending Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, in a 2024 criminal trial.

Lowell has also hired Rachel Cohen and Brenna Trout Frey, both of whom bolted from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in protest after it struck a deal with the White House. Cohen serves as part-time strategic and external affairs coordinator and Frey serves as counsel.

“This firm is prepared for today’s dynamic legal landscape, offering a leaner model than larger firms can provide,” Lowell said Friday in a statement.

The firm aims to represent “individuals, institutions, and entities, including those facing politicized investigations, civil and administrative actions.”

Clients of Lowell & Associates include Mark Zaid and Miles Taylor, whose security clearances were suspended by President Trump’s White House memos this year. Zaid represented a whistleblower whose complaints against President Trump led to his first impeachment inquiry. Taylor anonymously penned a critical op-ed in the New York Times and book titled “A Warning.”

Clients will also include entities and organizations involved in litigation over the improper revocation of grant funding by the Department of Government Efficiency and the federal government, the firm said.

The launch comes as Trump issues a series of punitive executive orders targeting law firms over their ties to attorneys who investigated the president or took him on in court. He’s also hit individuals who worked in his first administration with orders stemming from their public criticism of the president.

Judges have temporarily blocked large portions of Trump’s directives against four law firms, which threaten their employees’ access to federal buildings and security clearances, as well as their clients’ government contracts. Skadden and eight other corporate law firms have committed a total of $940 million in legal services in a series of deals with Trump to avoid similar executive orders.

“The current administration is pressing the lines of what people will see as acceptable investigations in a way that will be used down the line by future administrations that don’t have regard for rule of law norms,” said Cohen, who left after Skadden made a $100 million deal with Trump for free legal services. “We are building a firm that is prepared to take on representation with clear eyes in that context.”

Lowell has worked on high-profile cases for clients on both sides of the political aisle, including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.