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By Sara Merken

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REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

An exodus of lawyers from the U.S. government supercharged the hiring pool for law firms during President Trump's first year back in office, according to federal statistics and new data from private analytics firms.

Figures from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management show that 8,599 licensed attorneys left the federal government between Trump's inauguration and November, for a net decline of 6,524 accounting for new hires. The drop follows annual increases nearly every year over decades – the second-largest net decrease since 2005 was 389 lawyers in 2022.

Trump's administration took aggressive steps to shrink the overall federal workforce last year. The DOJ experienced both firings and resignations, including in protest over administration actions.

Departures from the DOJ and dozens of other agencies skewed the legal hiring market for large law firms. The 200 highest-grossing U.S. law firms hired 1,129 attorneys in 2025 who left federal service the same year, according to numbers gathered by Firm Prospects.

This week’s Billable Hours has even more data on the workforce shift, plus other industry news. Read more here from David Thomas.

In New York: Tax partner Brian Grieve moved from Paul Weiss to Davis Polk … Gibson Dunn brought on investment funds partner Blake Estes from Alston & Bird … King & Spalding added antitrust litigation partner Joshua Hazan from Simpson Thacher … Ropes & Gray hired commercial litigation partner Noah Yavitz from Wachtell, antitrust partner Marta Kelly from Paul Weiss and finance partner Michael McGuigan from Debevoise … McDermott tapped crypto lawyer Steve Knipfelberg from OKX … Boies Schiller hired bankruptcy litigation partner Gordon Novod from Grant & Eisenhofer.

In D.C.: Bracewell hired congressional investigations partner Thomas Moyer from Akin … White & Case tapped energy and infrastructure partner Ruta Kalvaitis Skučas from Crowell … King & Spalding added healthcare partners Rachel Gilbert, Cat Kirkland, Renee Rayne, Jim Gilliam and John Connell from Burr & Forman … Fried Frank brought on Shawn Johnson from Crowell, where he was co-chair of the antitrust group … Sidley picked up IP litigation partners Greg Lantier and Alexis Cohen from WilmerHale … Sidley also brought back international trade partner Justin Becker from Baker McKenzie … Eversheds Sutherland hired tax partner Taylor Kiessig, who was special counsel in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel.

In Chicago: BCLP picked up bankruptcy and restructuring partner Justin Winerman from Skadden … Perkins Coie added private client partner Mohsen Ghazi from McDermott … Neal Gerber Eisenberg hired private wealth partner Jeff Glickman from Katten. 

In Houston: Smith, Gambrell & Russell entered the market with litigation partner Mitch Ackal from Gray Reed … Orrick hired energy and infrastructure partner Nick Woodruff from Skadden.

Across other cities: O’Melveny added M&A partner Matthew O’Loughlin in Newport Beach from Proskauer … Withers hired employment partners Cody Yorke in New York and Kerry Zaroogian in Minneapolis from Outten & Golden …  Holland & Hart picked up IP litigation partner Elizabeth Manno in Denver from Venable … Willkie tapped private equity partner Payom Pirahesh in Los Angeles from Sidley … Kelley Drye added San Francisco-based privacy partner Kate Black from Hintze Law … Buchalter brought on labor and employment and white collar partner Kristina Maritczak in Seattle from Cairncross and Hempelmann … IP partner John Paik joined Crowell in Orange County from biotech company GRAIL … Ropes & Gray picked up private funds and tax partners Edouard Chapellier and Jonathan Abensour in Paris from Linklaters … Ropes also hired private equity partner Paul Dali in London from EQT … Holland & Knight added False Claims Act partner Meredith Auten from Morgan Lewis … Pryor Cashman tapped former Black Srebnick managing partner Jared Lopez in Miami.