Former US Attorney General Garland joins law firm Arnold & Porter

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By Sara Merken

(Reuters) -Former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is returning to private practice and joining law firm Arnold & Porter as a partner, the firm said on Friday.

Garland, who worked at the Washington, D.C.-based firm earlier in his career, will join its appellate and Supreme Court practice.

Democratic President Joe Biden nominated Garland as attorney general in 2021, when Garland was serving as chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Barack Obama nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, but the Republican-controlled Senate at the time refused to hold hearings on the nomination.

Garland was not available for comment. In a statement, he said Arnold & Porter is “where I first learned how to be a lawyer and about the important role lawyers can play in ensuring the rule of law.”

Since Republican President Donald Trump returned to office in January, U.S. Department of Justice leaders have expelled or sidelined dozens of career officials who typically remain in their posts across administrations and scaled back enforcement in many traditional areas of focus.

The department under Trump has emphasized immigration-related cases and begun to pursue prosecutions and investigations of public officials viewed as being opposed to Trump’s agenda.

Trump has also issued orders penalizing prominent law firms he accused of “weaponizing” the legal system against him and his allies.

Arnold & Porter was one of only a few large firms that signed onto court briefs backing the law firms that have sued the Trump administration challenging executive orders Trump issued against them.

The 1,000-lawyer firm has partnered with advocacy groups to sue over Trump’s bid to end automatic birthright citizenship in the United States.

(Reporting by Sara Merken; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)