Our Washington DC office, with more than 400 attorneys, is one of the largest in the metropolitan area and is the largest office within the firm. Our unparalleled knowledge of how Washington works has been developed over more than four decades under the leadership of the Wilmer Cutler Pickering founding partners Lloyd Cutler and John Pickering, both of whom were honored in 2004 with lifetime achievement awards by The American Lawyer. We are the only firm to have had two partners serve as chief White House Counsel: Lloyd Cutler, who served as Counsel to the last two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and C. Boyden Gray, who served as Counsel to President George H.W. Bush.

Solving Washington problems requires a broad range of skills including regulatory experience, policy advocacy, litigation, and the drafting and negotiation of agreements. It also requires the ability to craft an integrated approach to deal with multiple decision makers in Congress, the Executive Branch, and the courts, as well as with the media. WilmerHale offers unique capabilities in addressing Washington problems because the firm has deep substantive experience across the regulatory areas of greatest concern to business and because it has emphasized an integrated approach to problem-solving throughout its history.

We are frequently asked to address the acute business needs of a company while, at the same time, helping to achieve longer term alignment between the policy environment in which a company operates and its business model. Whether seeking to change or challenge a regulation, structuring a business strategy that depends on government support or forbearance, negotiating and clearing a deal in a regulated environment, reaching a legislative solution to a problem, addressing a congressional inquiry, handling a sensitive multi-pronged issue with significant political or public relations risk, or confronting urgent media inquiries on high-profile matters, clients routinely need the multi-dimensional representation that our firm offers.

Over 100 of our lawyers have had high-level government experience—a record unmatched by any other firm. We count among our partners a United States Trade Representative, a Deputy Attorney General, a Solicitor General, a Deputy Solicitor General, Assistant Attorneys General for both the Office of Legal Counsel and the Civil Division, Deputy Assistant Attorneys General for the Antitrust Division, General Counsel of the Departments of Defense and of the Navy, an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, a Chief of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, General Counsels of both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, and many senior officials from the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of State, and other agencies of government. To view a list of lawyers with high-government experience click here.

As the Washington metropolitain area increasingly becomes a technology and biotech hub, we have the expertise and institutional capacity to offer a broad range of services to clients in the technology sector, particularly in the area of intellectual property where protecting intellectual assets is becoming increasingly important. Our deep experience working with technology companies allows us to counsel companies through the entire business lifecycle, from start-up to public company, and beyond. We serve clients in a wide array of industries and practice areas through our Washington office including antitrust and competition, aviation, bankruptcy and commercial, communications, corporate, defense, national security, government contracts, environmental, FDA, intellectual property, international trade and market access, labor and employment, litigation and arbitration, real estate, securities enforcement and regulation, and tax.

Office Contact

Carol Clayton
Assistant Managing Partner
+1 202 663 6650
carol.clayton@wilmerhale.com