Old and Busted: Biden Inc! New Hotness: Kamala & Co!
Democrats suuuuuure like to talk tough about lobbying and influence … at least when they’re not part of the payday. However, it took literally one week for former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to become Lobbyist In Chief for a top-flight legal firm. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP made the announcement today, with special emphasis on Emhoff’s new assignment on corporate accounts dealing with “complex litigation”:
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that Douglas C. Emhoff has joined the Firm as a partner. Mr. Emhoff returns to private practice after serving as Second Gentleman of the United States. He brings more than three decades serving as a litigator, trial lawyer, and trusted counsel to clients and global business leaders, as well as extensive experience representing the United States around the world, to Willkie’s broad corporate and litigation platforms.
Mr. Emhoff’s practice will focus on advising corporations, boards of directors, and individuals on their most consequential business challenges, sensitive investigations, and complex litigation, including matters with significant reputational concerns that are international in scope, and emerging legal issues across industries and sectors. He will split his time between Los Angeles and New York.
“Doug’s leadership and his service as a trusted counselor to many global business leaders across a broad range of industries, as well as his extensive legal expertise and business acumen, make him a tremendous asset,” said Firm Chairman Thomas Cerabino. “We’re thrilled to be adding Doug to the Willkie partnership during this period of transformational firm growth.”
Willkie Farr may not use the word “lobbying,” but what else does “advising corporate boards” on “complex litigation” mean? Emhoff’s previous law practices focused on intellectual property and entertainment law, neither of which this announcement mentions except in reference to his adjunct professorship at Georgetown. Willkie Farr does have an entertainment section, so it’s curious why they wouldn’t have mentioned it in their announcement of Emhoff’s partnership if that’s where he planned to focus his work.
There are hints of lobbying in the way that Willkie Farr frames Emhoff’s past experience too, emphasis mine:
Mr. Emhoff most recently served as Second Gentleman of the United States, where his broad portfolio included traveling around the world representing the United States, including at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, and numerous other diplomatic events, and leading the administration’s work combatting antisemitism. In addition, he used his extensive legal background to advocate for equal access to legal aid and the removal of legal barriers in the justice system and served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center teaching a course on entertainment law.
In other words, lobbying. Intentionally or not, Willkie Farr puts Emhoff’s qualifications in the correct order for such work as well: he was the spouse of a Vice President, he knows a lot of important people, and the use of his “extensive legal background” to lobby within the system. And oh by the way, Emhoff taught an adjunct course on entertainment law!
A word of advice, however: given how the last 15 months of the Biden administration went, I wouldn’t lean too hard on Emhoff’s track record of “combatting anti-Semitism.” His wife and her boss spent that time sucking up to radical anti-Semites in the Democrat Party in order to save Michigan, and don’t think for a moment anyone will forget it, either.
Anyway, one has to wonder why Willkie Farr doesn’t use the word “lobbyist” and really hang his shingle out to drum up business. There’s nothing illegal about it, after all. Even if rules or laws prevented Kamala Harris from going into lobbying (and there are none to my knowledge), Emhoff isn’t an elected official, so those wouldn’t apply anyway. With Harris out of office, it’s not an overt influence-peddling arrangement — but then again, neither was Biden Inc between 2017 and 2021, or the Clinton Global Initiative from 2001 to 2016 either.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it, right?
The Clinton Global Initiative might be a good frame of reference. Having Emhoff go into the lobbying business — or at least the Elite Grip and Grin industry — keeps Harris relevant for any future run for office. This works both ways; it connects important clients to power, and power to important clients too that may come in handy in 2026 and/or 2028. Willkie Farr will likely prove to be a “tremendous asset” in that sense too.
