Trump's elite legal squad at Sullivan & Cromwell dwindles to a single partner

Donald Trump hired an "elite legal team" from Sullivan & Cromwell last year, comprising five partners who had all clerked for Supreme Court justices and included a former acting solicitor general. By April, four of those attorneys exited—two moved to Gibson Dunn, while Jamie McDonald became Manhattan U.S. attorney and Matthew Schwartz was confirmed as a 2nd Circuit appellate judge. This left co-chair Robert Giuffra Jr. as the sole partner overseeing a series of high-stakes appeals, such as a petition to the Supreme Court challenging an $83.3 million defamation verdict for E. Jean Carroll and efforts to overturn Trump's Manhattan hush-money and fraud convictions.

The heavy workload has prompted Sullivan & Cromwell to plan an expansion of the defense team within the next two weeks, ahead of briefs due in late August and October. Giuffra, who also manages a large litigation roster, is unlikely to handle all three appeals alone. The departures have not uniformly harmed the lawyers' reputations, as the new appointments reflect career advancements rather than fallout from the association with Trump.