Thomas J. Perrelli, the former No. 3 in the Obama administration's Justice Department, is re-joining the law firm Jenner & Block.
As associate attorney general, Mr. Perrelli was responsible for a number of the department's divisions, including its antitrust and
civil rights units.
Anton R. Valukas, the chairman of Jenner & Block, said that Mr. Perrelli “has developed strong relationships in Washington D.C. and throughout the law enforcement community nationwide, particularly among state attorneys general, and he will be a tremendous asset to clients who face the most significant legal, regulatory and public policy challenges.â€
Mr. Perrelli, 46, will be based in Washington and run a new Jenner & Block practice area called Government Controversies and Public Policy
litigation, which is effectively a hybrid of white collar criminal defense and regulatory work. He is returning to Jenner & Block, where he started as an associated in 1992. As a pa rtner at the firm before joining the Obama White House, Mr. Perrelli represented media companies in intellectual property litigation.
Jenner & Block, which is headquartered in Chicago, is known for its litigation practice and has a respected white-collar criminal defense group. Mr. Valukas is the former United States attorney in Chicago and recently authored the examiner's report in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy case.
The move back to Jenner & Block by Mr. Perrelli makes him the latest in a string of senior Justice Department lawyers to leave government for private practice. Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago, departed his post earlier this year and recently announced that he was joining Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Last year, Christine Varney, the White House's top antitrust lawyer, became a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Mr. Perrelli handled a number of high-profile cases at the Justice Department. He served as a poin t person for the government's settlement with the country's largest banks related to their mortgage foreclosure practices. He negotiated the agreement with BP related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that led to a $20 billion trust fund and a claims process for the accident's victims.
This was Mr. Perrelli's second stint at the Justice Department. During the Clinton administration, Mr. Perrelli serving for several years as counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno.
As a law student at Harvard, Mr. Perrelli served as managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. The publication's president that same year was
Barack Obama.
President Obama seems to have a thing for Jenner & Block lawyers. Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., the United States Solicitor General, and Andrew Weissman, the general counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are both Jenner & Block alumni.
