Biden SG Prelogar to Rejoin Cooley After Harvard Stint (1)

Former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is returning to Cooley LLP, where she worked before representing President Joe Biden’s administration at the US Supreme Court.

Prelogar is set to return to the firm following a temporary teaching role at Harvard Law School, according to five people with knowledge of the move. She’s expected to join the firm’s Washington DC office later this summer, according to one of the people.

Cooley, best known for advising tech and life sciences companies like Apple, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., and chipmaker Nvidia Corp., has been expanding its reach in the nation’s capital.

In Prelogar, who worked at the firm for a year before joining the Solicitor General’s office in 2021, Cooley gets a high court superstar. She’s praised in the legal community for an effortless argument style in court and clear, concisely written appeals.

Cooley and Prelogar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Elizabeth Prelogar

Photo: Justice Department

Prelogar was the second woman to serve as solicitor general: Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan held the role before being nominated to the court in 2010. She argued some of the most controversial cases to reach the Supreme Court during her time as the government’s top lawyer before the justices.

Prelogar during this term convinced the court to uphold federal regulations for build-at-home “ghost gun” kits and argued against a Tennessee ban on certain gender-affirming care for transgender minors, losing that case 6-3. She previously got an appeals court ruling overturned that would have prevented mail-order prescriptions of the abortion drug mifepristone and successfully fought against a Republican-backed effort to give state legislatures near-exclusive authority to set federal election rules.

Prelogar isn’t Cooley’s only addition from the Solicitor General’s Office. Ephraim McDowell, who served as assistant to the solicitor general during the Biden administration, announced on LinkedIn in June that he had joined Cooley as a partner in its issues and appeals practice.

Along with fellow Cooley partner Andrew Goldstein, Prelogar served on Robert Mueller’s team investigating the Trump campaign for ties to Russia. After leaving the Solicitor General’s office in January, Prelogar taught a spring semester course at Harvard with former Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben on changing paradigms in the Supreme Court.

Cooley litigators successfully represented Jenner & Block in challenging an executive order against the law firm, in which President Donald Trump threatened Jenner lawyers’ security clearances and access to federal buildings as well as their clients’ government contracts. The White House targeted major law firms over their ties to the Mueller investigation, as well as other attorneys that Trump perceives as enemies.

The firm’s San Francisco office in June added seven partners from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, one of nine firms that made deals with Trump to avoid similar orders. Those firms have pledged nearly $1 billion combined in free legal services on causes of shared interest with the White House.