Donald Trump's Elite Legal Team Dwindles to One Senior Lawyer as Appeal Deadlines Loom

President Donald Trump is facing a potential staffing crunch on three major legal challenges after four of the five Sullivan & Cromwell partners originally assigned to his cases left the team, leaving co-chair Robert Giuffra Jr. as the only remaining senior lawyer publicly leading the work.

The departures, reported by Politico on 16 August, come as Trump's lawyers prepare filings in his New York civil fraud case and his criminal appeal over the hush-money conviction. Sullivan & Cromwell is also representing him in his Supreme Court challenge to an $83.3 million (£61.4 million) defamation judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll.

Donald Trump Facing Appeals Pressure With Deadlines Looming

Trump hired the unusually prestigious legal team at the beginning of his second term. All five partners had clerked for Supreme Court justices, while Jeff Wall had also served as acting solicitor general.

The lineup was widely viewed as a sign that some of the legal establishment had become more willing to work with the president.

That arrangement has since unravelled, though not in the usual fashion. Trump elevated Jamie McDonald to Manhattan US attorney and nominated Matthew Schwartz to a lifetime seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Schwartz was confirmed by the Senate in mid-July, while McDonald began the Manhattan post in late July after being appointed by the district's judges.

Wall and Morgan Ratner, both prominent Supreme Court litigators, left Sullivan & Cromwell in April for rival firm Gibson Dunn. Ratner declined to comment to Politico, while Wall did not respond to a request for comment.

Giuffra is now handling a workload that would ordinarily be divided among several senior litigators. The firm's co-chair has major litigation clients and leadership responsibilities in addition to Trump's cases, making it unusual for him to oversee all three legal challenges personally.

A person familiar with the firm's staffing told Politico that more partners are expected to join Trump's team within two weeks. The timing matters.

A brief in the civil fraud appeal is due on 26 August, followed by a filing in the criminal case in October. Sullivan & Cromwell did not respond to Politico's request for comment.

Trump's Legal Team Faces Three Separate Battles

The most immediate deadline concerns New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud case. An appeals court has overturned the roughly $500 million (£368.7 million) financial penalty imposed on Trump.

But his lawyers are still asking New York's highest court to erase the underlying finding that he fraudulently misrepresented his wealth and assets to secure more favourable loan terms.

The criminal appeal is separate and potentially more politically combustible. Trump was convicted in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of his 2016 presidential campaign.

His lawyers are seeking to overturn that conviction. Then there is Carroll's $83.3 million (£61.4 million) defamation judgment. In July, Giuffra and a junior Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer were among those who signed Trump's petition asking the US Supreme Court to review the case.

A lawyer from the Missouri-based James Otis Law Group also appeared on the filing. Trump's lawyers argue that presidential immunity protects statements he made while in office when denying Carroll's allegations.

In the petition, they described the case as 'the first case in our nation's history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office,' according to the filing. A federal appeals court had previously upheld the judgment.

The Justice Department separately asked the Supreme Court to consider whether the United States should be substituted for Trump as the defendant, according to court filings.

If successful, the move could eliminate the judgment because the federal government generally cannot be sued for defamation. That gives the dispute an added institutional dimension, rather than leaving it solely as Trump's personal fight over a civil award.

Trump has already suffered one setback in the Carroll litigation. The Supreme Court on 29 June declined to hear his appeal of a separate $5 million (£3.7 million) award, leaving that judgment intact. That case involved a jury finding that Trump sexually abused and later defamed Carroll.

The shrinking Sullivan & Cromwell team has also exposed an awkward tension inside the firm. Some lawyers who joined Trump's defence have since taken senior government or judicial positions.

Others have moved to a competitor amid reported unease over the firm's association with the president. Separate reporting has documented internal tensions at Sullivan & Cromwell over the firm's involvement in Trump's Carroll litigation.

Giuffra himself was previously considered by Trump for attorney general, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Politico. The president ultimately chose his former criminal defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, for the role.

For now, the public record shows one Sullivan & Cromwell partner carrying the senior burden of three high-profile legal challenges, with reinforcements reportedly expected but not yet identified. The next filing deadline is less than two weeks away. Whether the firm can rebuild Trump's legal team before then remains unclear.