Injured in an accident? Call the guy on the billboard. Targeted by the Trump administration? Call Abbe Lowell.
The longtime Washington litigator has spent decades representing senators, governors and lobbyists facing politically sensitive investigations and prosecutions. But since launching his own firm in May, Lowell has a new specialty: defending the targets of Donald Trump’s retribution.
His newest client, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, cements his status as one of the most sought-after defense attorneys in Trump’s Washington. Lowell is preparing to challenge Trump’s purported firing of Cook — a case that has massive implications for the future of the American economy and seems destined to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Cook joins a roster of other Lowell clients who are in the president’s crosshairs, from New York Attorney General Letitia James to former Jan. 6 prosecutors. All are challenging Trump’s unprecedented efforts to stretch his own executive power and harness the tools of government against his perceived enemies.
Lowell, 73, has built a career representing Washington insiders. Over the past two decades, he helped former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and former Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) beat corruption trials or investigations. In the 1990s, he helped defend President Bill Clinton during his impeachment.
More recently, Lowell represented Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation during the first Trump administration. Last year, he defended Hunter Biden in his two criminal cases.
“He takes on cases that have political aspects but he himself is not a political operative,” said Margaret Donovan, Lowell’s co-counsel in at least two other cases challenging Trump actions. “I don’t know if there’s any lawyer in America who’s better qualified to represent [Cook] on this.”
Lowell’s decision earlier this year to leave Winston & Strawn, the firm where he had been a partner since 2018, has freed him to decide which cases to accept. That freedom, combined with Lowell’s existing reputation, put him in a “unique position” to land clients who want to sue the administration, Donovan added.
“He wants to take on a lot of fights,” she said.
Lowell, via a spokesperson, declined to comment.
Even as much of the Washington legal establishment seeks to curry favor with Trump, Lowell is not the only elite litigator representing Trump’s nemeses. The white-shoe firm Covington & Burling represents former special counsel Jack Smith. The conservative Supreme Court specialist Paul Clement is defending law firms that Trump has targeted for retaliation.
But Lowell may have the longest and most diverse list of clients battling Trump.
From its first day in existence, Lowell & Associates made it clear the new firm intended to represent individuals targeted by the administration. The firm’s initial clients included James, who like Cook is being investigated for alleged mortgage fraud; former Homeland Security official and Trump critic Miles Taylor, whom the president has singled out for investigation; and Washington attorney Mark Zaid, whose security clearance was revoked by Trump.
In the months since, Lowell has been hired by Justice Department officials fired for their role in prosecuting or publicizing Jan. 6 cases; a FEMA official fired after she approved funding to New York City to pay for hotel rooms for undocumented immigrants; a California union leader arrested while protesting ICE raids in Los Angeles; and FBI officials fired after clashing with the White House earlier this year.
Lowell isn’t just playing defense. Always a warrior, Lowell has used media appearances to advocate for his clients in the court of public opinion and criticize the president and the Justice Department.
“I don’t think there’s been an attorney general that has been willing to carry out the president’s wrongdoing as much as Pam Bondi has since John Mitchell with President Nixon,” Lowell said on MSNBC earlier this month.
“He is full of energy and thankfully he has a backbone to stand up for what is right and not be motivated by money as too many of our colleagues are,” said Zaid, Lowell’s simultaneous client and co-counsel in other matters.
On a podcast last week, Lowell described some of his cases as being “very different” on the facts, but connected by a central theme.
“They all stand for the proposition of something completely unprecedented,” he said. “Which is the full power of the federal government being pointed in the direction of … individual people in the United States who happen to be adverse to this administration’s policies or who have criticized them. … It’s extraordinary.”
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