A former associate counsel to President Barack Obama has joined Boies, Schiller & Flexner as a partner in the firm's litigation department. Michael Gottlieb, a White House lawyer from January 2009 to January 2010 and again from May 2011 until March 2013, is based in Boies Schiller's Washington office. From March until he joined the firm last week, Gottlieb worked as an independent contractor for Thomas Goldstein's Goldstein & Russell. He also worked on appellate litigation and wrote articles for SCOTUSblog. Gottlieb, scanning the private practice landscape, said he sought a firm with "a strong litigation platform." He called Boies Schiller a "good match" for him. Name partner David Boies served as lead counsel, with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Theodore Olson, in the Supreme Court's review of California's Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage. Boies and Olson, co-chairman of Gibson's appellate and constitutional law practice, are teaming up once again to try to overturn Virginia's gay marriage and civil unions ban. In August, Boies Schiller's litigation team lost David Bernick, the former general counsel for Phillip Morris USA, to Dechert. Earlier this year, in April, another litigator, Matthew Friedrich, a former Criminal Division assistant attorney general under the George W. Bush administration, left for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Gottlieb said his practice at Boies Schiller will involve "government-facing" litigation, including regulatory issues in addition to litigation and investigations. He will also work on appellate litigation. At the White House counsel's office, Gottlieb worked on matters that included Supreme Court and appellate nominations, national security matters and regulatory issues. During his first stint at 1600 Pennsylvania, Gottlieb participated in the review of qualifications and personal background of judicial nominees. He also said he prepared nominees for appearances before Congress. In the national security arena, Gottlieb's work included assessments of the War Powers Resolution and cyber security. Gottlieb took a break from the White House counsel's office to serve on a joint task force in Afghanistan. He worked on issues that included the reform of U.S. detention operations, the development of the rule of law and anticorruption. Gottlieb spent 14 months in Afghanistan. Before joining the White House legal team, Gottlieb was an assistant U.S. attorney in California's Central District from 2008 to 2009, where he prosecuted bank and wire fraud cases, government benefits fraud, identity theft and narcotics distribution, among other matters. He clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens from 2004 to 2005.
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