Appointees Taking Big Pay Cuts

President Obama seems to be trying to kickstart the bailout by hiring every lawyer he can get his hands on.  We’ve reported previously on several rounds of hires, and today, BLT has rounded up 22 additional lawyers Obama has hired for the White House Counsel’s Office.

The four most-senior appointments are:

• Daniel Meltzer, who will be principal deputy White House counsel to the president and deputy assistant to the president.  He has been a professor at Harvard since 1982;
• Mary deRosa, deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs and legal adviser to the National Security Council, who comes over from the Senate Judiciary Committee;
• Neal Wolin, head lawyer at the Office of Economic Policy, who leaves his job as the head of the property and casualty business at The Hartford; and
• Norman Eisen of Zuckerman Spaeder, who was appointed special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform.

But AmLaw Daily hits on the topic closest to our hearts.  Compensation.  The three highest-paid attorneys, according to ALD and Politico, are:

• Eric Holder, Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, who made $3.3 million at Covington & Burling last year, plus a separation payment of $1 – $5 million and another $500,000 – $1 million in returned capital contribution;
• Jeh Johnson, the nominee for Defense Department general counsel, who made $2.6 million at Paul Weiss, plus similar separation payment and $200,000 for his capital account; and
• Ron Kirk, the nominee for US Trade Rep, who made about $1 million between Vinson & Elkins and service on some boards.

It’s possible that Wolin will out-earn them all, though.  In 2007, he took home a hair under $4.5 million, although 2008 was terrible for HIG.

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4. BigLaw to BigGov’t = BigPayCut
5. More BigLaw to Administration