Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has hired former US district attorney and ex-Trump White House counsel John Bash as a partner in its Houston and Washington DC offices.

Bash resigned as US Attorney for the Western District of Texas earlier this month after three years in the role and eight in total at the US Department of Justice. He previously served as assistant to the Solicitor General in Washington via a brief stint in the White House as a special assistant and associate counsel to President Trump back in 2017. 

His exit from the Justice Department follows the conclusion this month of an investigation Bash led into whether national security officials in the Obama administration had wrongfully ‘unmasked’ Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who were mentioned in intelligence reports. Bash, who was appointed by Attorney General Bill Bar to run the investigation, found no evidence of impropriety.

John Quinn, the firm's founder and managing partner, said: “Few lawyers have the credentials that John Bash has. His experience in the US Solicitor General’s office and as US Attorney for the Western District of Texas will be a big asset for our firm and our clients.” 

Bash’s practice will focus on appellate matters, internal investigations, patent law and energy regulation.

Prior to joining the Justice Department, Bash spent four years in private practice as an associate at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, and before that served as a law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and to Brett Kavanaugh, who was then a judge on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

As a district attorney in Texas, Bash oversaw a team of more than 300 people and led his office through a number of high-profile cases. Those included identifying and stopping the bomber who terrorised Austin in the spring of 2018, convicting a Texas state senator for his participation in fraud and bribery schemes and obtaining the nation’s first temporary restraining order against sellers of a fake Covid-19 vaccine.

Bash’s arrival increases Quinn Emanuel’s Houston office lawyer count to 13. The firm opened its Houston office in 2014.

Earlier this month Quinn Emanuel hired Eric Russo, a leading state prosecutor for France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), as a partner in Paris.

In April, former lead prosector in the Robert Mueller Russia probe, Andrew Weissmann, rejoined Jenner & Block after almost a decade in public service.