National Legal and Business Media Cover Arrival of McGuireWoods Partner Michael Francisco

September 16, 2020

The August arrival of Washington, D.C., partner Michael Francisco received national media coverage.

Francisco, an accomplished litigator and recent law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined McGuireWoods’ Government Investigations & White Collar Litigation Department on Aug. 17, 2020. In an Aug. 18 Reuters story, Francisco explained that it was McGuireWoods’ national reputation that drew him to the firm, adding that he is eager to build on that reputation “by bringing in new strategic litigation that presses back on government overreach in regulating businesses.”

The National Law Journal reported on Francisco’s return to private practice amidst court changes brought upon by the pandemic. Francisco, formerly a private practitioner and assistant Colorado solicitor general, believes he is the first U.S. Supreme Court clerk from the last term to start a new law firm job.

Francisco told the NLJ that McGuireWoods has “a good mix of former clerks, former prosecutors, governmental attorneys and a really strong team, as well as a good-sized Supreme Court and appellate group,” and that the new opportunity matched his desire to continue to do appellate work while focusing on litigation driven by being in D.C.

Bloomberg Law quoted Francisco in a Sept. 11 story on how COVID-19 affected law clerks at the Supreme Court and other federal courts. After the pandemic hit, he said, “the interaction with clerks in other chambers changed quite a bit.”