Biglaw

Eric Holder Jr. Back at Covington & Burling

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By Amanda Griffin

Posted on July 6, 2015

Summary: Former attorney general Eric Holder Jr. is returning to his last place of employment before becoming serving with the Obama administration.

The nation’s first black attorney general will be back at the 900-lawyer strong Covington & Burling law firm starting in September. Eric Holder Jr. will be rejoining the firm as a white-collar partner. Holder’s former chief of staff, Margaret Richardson, will also be joining the firm in an of counsel position.

Holder worked for the firm from 2001 to 2009 until he left for the U.S. Department of Justice for six years. Holder left the Justice Department in April. He plans on staying with Covington until retirement.

The plan is for Holder to work at Covington on a variety of projects such as pro bono, access-to-justice issues, counseling clients on strategy, and litigation. He calls his work “at the intersection of business, law, public policy, international relations”. Holder is excited to get back to working with many clients on a variety of cases. The vote by partners whether to formally admit Holder back to the law firm wasn’t a close vote, it was unanimous.

Very few former attorney generals are in private practice, especially in Big Law. Holder looks up to former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, who served at the end of Carter’s administration. Civiletti charged $1,000 per hour and led Venable until 2006.

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Holder’s move may help move him away from the anger directed at him while being attorney general. The U.S. House of Representatives voted Holder to be in contempt of Congress in 2012 for the Fast and Furious scandal.

Holder has been a judge, trial lawyer, and U.S. attorney. While working at Covington the first time, he participated in attaining clients such as the NFL and Chiquita Brands International Inc. He has been working on building better relationships between minorities and law enforcement.