Judicial Notice (11.16.25): ‘I Regret Ever Knowing Him’
A high-powered lawyer’s emails with Epstein, a leading boutique’s hire of a prominent prosecutor, and a Biglaw firm that’s open to innovation.
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Thanksgiving is a week and a half away, and things are starting to slow down, at least for me. And I’m not complaining: I need time to dig myself out from under everything that has piled up over the past few months. Sigh.
On Wednesday night, I had a great time attending the joint 50th birthday party of Peter Stris and Elizabeth Brannen. They’ve been friends for decades, going back to their time together on the high school and college debate circuits—and now they’re the founding and managing partner, respectively, of Stris & Maher, a leading litigation boutique. The festivities were attended by numerous legal luminaries—but for me, it was mainly a fun opportunity to reconnect with old friends from speech and debate.
On Thursday, I headed down to Philadelphia for the annual meeting of the board of directors and advisory council of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)—an organization whose work in defense of free speech and the First Amendment is more important than ever. To learn more about FIRE and how you can support its mission, check out the FIRE website.
Now, on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: Kathryn Ruemmler.
By the standards of 2025, last week was actually not heavy on hard news. So I hope you’ll indulge me as I return to my roots, at Underneath Their Robes and then Above the Law, and file an edition of Judicial Notice that’s a bit more gossipy than usual.
One of the biggest stories of the past week was the release by lawmakers of more than 20,000 emails from the files of Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious financier and sex offender who died in 2019. Most media coverage focused on the mentions of Donald Trump—but the lawyers on my group texts were more interested in the messages between Epstein and Kathryn Ruemmler.
Kathy Ruemmler is one of the nation’s most prominent and respected lawyers. After rising to fame as a federal prosecutor on the Enron Task Force, she served in the Obama administration, first as principal associate deputy attorney general and then as White House Counsel. After leaving government, she chaired the white-collar and investigations practice at Latham & Watkins, until she left for Goldman Sachs—where she’s now chief legal officer and general counsel, earning $17.6 million $22.5 million last year. [UPDATE (11:07 p.m.): From an in-house source: “Ruemmler’s 2024 earned comp was $22.5 million, not $17.6 million. Your source is using the proxy table that shows how much she was paid in 2024, not how much she earned in 2024, and there’s a massive difference. Most of her comp is deferred, so there’s a big lag between earned and paid when it goes up YOY. The $17.6 million is what she actually received, based on salary plus the vesting of awards from the prior three years. What she earned in 2024 ($22.5 million) is on page 47 of their proxy.]
But it appears that legal celebrities are, as Us Weekly likes to say, “just like us”: they stop to relieve themselves at New Jersey Turnpike rest stops, where they think judgy thoughts about the patrons. Here’s what Ruemmler wrote to Epstein in a 2015 email that came out in last week’s trove, letting him know that she’d be driving up from Washington to New York for a visit:
I will stop to pee and get gas at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, will observe all of the people there who are at least 100 pounds overweight, will have a mild panic attack as a result of the observation, and will then decide that I am not eating another bite of food for the rest of my life out of fear that I will end up like one of these people.
As a resident of the Garden State, I must raise a point of personal privilege: we’re not Arkansas, Ms. Ruemmler! In fact, according to the CDC, New Jersey is #7 among the 50 states when ranked by which ones have the lowest prevalence of obesity.
For additional highlights from the Epstein-Ruemmler correspondence, check out Business Insider, CNBC, Politico, and The Washington Post. Their emails covered a wide range of topics:
Donald Trump. In 2015, Ruemmler wrote that the future president was “living proof of the adage that it is better to be lucky than smart.” In 2016, she described his rise as “seriously scary.” In 2017, she called him “truly stupid” and “so gross.”
To AG, or not to AG? Ruemmler consulted Epstein when she was mulling over President Obama’s offer to replace Eric Holder as attorney general. She vacillated over it endlessly, leading Epstein to compare her to Hamlet. One of her concerns: she didn’t want to give up her luxury apartment in Manhattan—which she feared she’d be saddled with financially, telling Epstein, “I signed the lease in my name for a year, so I think I am pretty stuck. It is $11,000 a month, and Latham reimburses me $8,000 a month.” In the end, NYC real estate apparently won out over a Cabinet post: she turned down the chance to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), remaining at Latham.
Recruitment by a rival. Ruemmler also sought Epstein’s counsel when she was approached by a recruiter representing Hogan Lovells, who sought to lure her from Latham. In the end, she didn’t move.
First-class problems (literally). Ruemmler asked Epstein, “When I go to Dubai on Emirates, do I need to go first or is business class good enough, given that I only care about sleeping?” Epstein responded, “biz is ok”—before offering her a ride on a friend’s private jet.
In a statement shared with several news outlets, Goldman Sachs spokesperson Tony Fratto said that these “personal emails exclusively occurred before Kathy worked at Goldman Sachs…. Kathy is an exceptional general counsel, and we benefit from her judgment every day.” As for Ruemmler herself, she didn’t comment on the latest Epstein revelations (so no apologies to Turnpike travelers packing a few extra pounds). But I’m guessing her 2023 comment to The Wall Street Journal says it all: “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein.”
Other lawyers in the news:
Speaking of gossip, here’s the title of an Above the Law post by Kathryn Rubino, and I challenge you not to click: “A Dominatrix, Cyberstalking, And Sour Grapes: Lawsuit(s) Against Biglaw Partner By Former Firm Is Quite The Journey.”
And here’s another one from Rubino: “Video of Racist Rant Costs Biglaw Recruiting Director Their Job, Because, Yeah.”
Not-Yet-A-Lawyer of the Week: Kim Kardashian. After failing the California bar exam, the reality TV star and social-media influencer took to TikTok and declared the four psychics who predicted she’d pass to be “f**king full of s**t.” But she also went on Instagram and pledged to try again, declaring that “falling short isn’t failure—it’s fuel.” Good luck to Kim Kardashian on her next attempt.
Speaking of social media, it continues to loom large in Trump administration appointments: the president withdrew the nomination of Donald Korb to serve as chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, after activist Laura Loomer attacked Korb on X (for donating to and saying nice things about Democrats, among other offenses). Interestingly enough, the administration—after successfully pushing through a number of Cabinet nominees, including some controversial ones—has wound up withdrawing more than 50 nominees for less-senior positions, according to Bloomberg Government.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), after being seemingly sidelined, is back in action—and reportedly issued a memorandum upholding the legality of the Trump administration’s boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea, including off the coast of Venezuela. The memo hasn’t been made public, but some members of Congress and their staffers have read it—and T. Elliot Gaiser, the head of OLC, has answered questions about it at Capitol Hill briefings.
In other DOJ news, U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones (S.D. Fla.) is staffing up investigations into Trump adversaries—and some assistant U.S. attorneys are departing amid declining morale, according to Bloomberg Law.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton (S.D.N.Y.) has managed to walk the Trump tightrope, staying in the good graces of the administration while remaining respected in the legal profession more broadly. But that could get harder, now that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has tasked him with investigating alleged ties between Jeffrey Epstein and prominent Democrats.
Across the river in New Jersey, a 51-year-old man named Keith Michael Lisa showed up at the Rodino Federal Building in Newark—where I used to work as an assistant U.S. attorney, many years ago—with a baseball bat. After being turned away (pro tip: don’t try to enter a federal building with a baseball bat)—he returned, sans bat, and went up to the floor where Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has her offices. He engaged in vandalism, causing unspecified damage, then fled; two days later, on Friday, he was arrested.
Moving from federal to state prosecution, Peter Skandalakis—executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, responsible for finding a district attorney to take over the Georgia state criminal case against Donald Trump from the disqualified Fani Willis—got a bunch of
hell-nosdeclinations from the prosecutors he asked. So Pete Skandalakis is taking on the case himself. (He doesn’t necessarily have to move forward with charges; he could decide to dismiss it.)In happier news, congratulations to the winners of The American Lawyer’s 2025 Industry Awards—including Neel Chatterjee of King & Spalding, the Attorney of the Year (and my former podcast guest)—and the recipients of Law360’s 2025 MVP Awards, 160 attorneys who work across 35 practice areas at 76 firms.
In memoriam:
Frank Chuman—a civil-rights lawyer and activist, whose time in a World War II internment camp spurred him to spend decades fighting for the equal rights of Japanese Americans—passed away at 105. He actually died in 2022, but his passing went unreported until it was covered on Friday by The Times (and then picked up by The Post and other outlets).
Ely Samuel Parker—an aide to Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, whom Grant later appointed to serve as Commissioner of Indian Affairs—was posthumously admitted to the New York State Bar. The honor came 176 years after he was turned away because of his Native American ancestry.
Judge of the Week: Judge Sandra Ikuta.
Last week wasn’t a huge week for judges in the news. So I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta, who has served with distinction for almost two decades on the Ninth Circuit. She just took senior status, after the confirmation of her successor, Judge Eric Tung.
One of Judge Ikuta’s former clerks, former Ohio solicitor general Ben Flowers, wrote an eloquent and heartfelt tribute to his former boss for National Review. He noted how Judge Ikuta, a conservative jurist on the famously liberal Ninth Circuit, has been repeatedly vindicated by the Supreme Court over the years.
Judge Ikuta’s successor, Judge Tung, also penned a paean to her, for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (via Ed Whelan). Tung highlighted important themes in Ikuta’s jurisprudence, including her close attention to jurisdiction, reflecting her “vigilance in ensuring the federal court’s proper role in our republican design,” and how she has “put a premium on the clarity of rules—an important rule-of-law value benefitting lower courts and litigants.”
Tung also talked about Ikuta as a person, noting her “unconventional path to the judiciary”—including her pre-law career as a journalist covering martial arts. It was while covering martial arts that then-Sandra Segal met her husband, photojournalist Ed Ikuta (whose name she took). So if you’ve ever seen Judge Ikuta and wondered why she doesn’t look Asian American, now you know. Thanks again to Judge Ikuta for her many years of service—to the federal judiciary, and to the country.
In other news about judges and the judiciary:
Following in the footsteps of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, next year Justice Neil Gorsuch will publish a children’s book (co-authored with his former clerk, Janie Nitze). Scheduled for publication a few months before the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Heroes of 1776 will tell the stories of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other great figures in American history.
Professors Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati recently posted a very interesting paper to SSRN, “Trump v. Biden Judges.” It’s an updated version of their research that I discussed last year, but with additional data on the Biden appointees—some of whom were too new to the bench to analyze reliably a year ago. For better or worse, the professors’ conclusion stayed the same: in terms of productivity, quality, and independence, “Trump judges continue to dominate the Biden judges.” (For a critique of their paper, see this Above the Law post by Joe Patrice.)
Speaking of judges appointed by different presidents, Kyle Cheney wondered in the pages of Politico: why are all these Reagan-appointed judges ruling against Trump? Cheney’s theory: “their legal and judicial careers were all forged in the embers of Watergate, when a president’s assertion of vast, unprecedented power threatened to topple the justice system.”
Speaking of anti-Trump Reagan appointees, I mentioned last week that Mark Wolf stepped down as a judge in the District of Massachusetts in order to speak out against the president—and he’s not wasting any time. He gave his first-ever podcast interview, to Dahlia Lithwick of Slate (via How Appealing), and he also talked to Law360, expressing his concern that the Supreme Court will be too “timid” in dealing with Trump. Wolf also plans to practice: he joined Todd & Weld, a Boston-based litigation boutique, as senior counsel.
Some view Mark Wolf as a hero, and some do not (e.g., Mike Davis of the conservative Article III Project, who called the former judge “a wolf in wolf’s clothing” in Fox News). But I agree with Sarah Isgur and David French of Advisory Opinions: if you’re a federal judge who wants to criticize the Trump administration to the max, it’s commendable to step down from the bench.
Isgur and French contrasted Wolf with the anonymous judges who spoke with The Times and criticized the Supreme Court—whom Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, want Chief Judge John Roberts to investigate. Grassley and Jordan suggested that these unknown judges might have violated judicial ethics by failing to “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Speaking of confirmations, there were no new ones last week—the Senate is still waking up from its shutdown slumber—but the Trump administration announced some new nominees: Missouri Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Megan Benson (W.D. Mo.), U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes (W.D. Ark.), U.S. Attorney Nicholas Jon Ganjei (S.D. Tex.), U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Lea (W.D. Tenn.), former assistant U.S. attorney Justin Olson (S.D. Ind.), and Alaska Senior Assistant Attorney General Aaron Christian Peterson (D. Alaska).
These nominees struck me as pretty straightforward. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit, noted by Reuters, is that Judge Benson is the daughter of Judge Duane Benton (8th Cir.), who announced last month that he’d be taking senior status upon confirmation of a successor.
And now we know why four Mississippi nominees, two judicial and two U.S. attorney picks, are being held up by Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Apparently Senator Tillis is pushing for federal tribal recognition of the Lumbee, an indigenous group in North Carolina, in the National Defense Authorization Act—something Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, might be able to help with, per Bloomberg Law.
Job of the Week: an opportunity for a senior associate in real estate in Chicago.
Lateral Link is spearheading an unposted search for a senior associate with 4-8 years of sophisticated leasing experience to join a top-ranked, well-established real estate group in Chicago. The ideal candidate will have substantial experience in all aspects of commercial leasing, including landlord- and tenant-side work; prior work with all types of owners, managers, and users, including REITs and other institutional owners; and experience in the office, industrial, hotel, and multifamily sectors (with a preference for significant experience with office leasing). This role will have the autonomy to run transactions with minimal supervision, while working in a collaborative, entrepreneurial, and supportive team environment. The firm offers true work-life harmony and a flexible, hybrid approach to working. Please email Zain Atassi at zatassi@laterallink.com with your résumé for immediate consideration.
