Super lawyer Paul Smith is giving up his partnership at Jenner and Block to become vice president of litigation and strategy at the Campaign Legal Center. From the release:
Mr. Smith, who has extensive experience in voting rights and redistricting, will also work side-by-side with long-time colleague and friend, Gerry Hebert, director of CLC’s voting rights and redistricting program. When CLC’s landmark partisan gerrymandering case, Whitford v. Gill, reaches the U.S. Supreme Court next term, as seems almost certain, Mr. Smith will present the oral argument.
Prior to joining CLC, Mr. Smith most recently served as a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block. In addition to his role at CLC, Mr. Smith will teach as a Distinguished Visitor from Practice at Georgetown University Law Center.
While best known for his gay rights victory [in Lawrence v. Texas], Smith has also argued before the high court in numerous redistricting cases and in First Amendment disputes as well. He has argued in 19 cases before the Supreme Court. While at Jenner, he chaired the firm’s appellate and Supreme Court practice and was co-chair of the media and First Amendment, and election law and redistricting practices. Smith had worked side-by-side at Jenner with Donald Verrilli Jr. until Verrilli went to the Obama Justice Department in 2009. Last year, Verrilli left his position as solicitor general to open a Washington office for Munger, Tolles and Olson.
What a coup for CLC!