Federal lawyering, long viewed as a prestigious path for idealistic attorneys, is hemorrhaging talent under President Trump's second term, the New York Times reports. More than 10,000 government lawyers have left since early 2025, leaving agencies scrambling to fill key roles and, in some cases, easing internal resistance to Trump's agenda. Overall, the federal lawyer headcount is down 17% from late 2024, with the Justice Department losing about a fifth of its attorneys and agencies like Education and Housing shedding 40% or more of their legal staffs. Homeland Security is the lone big winner, growing its legal team by 21% as it drives the administration's immigration crackdown.
The exits are reshaping where public-interest law happens. Veteran federal attorneys are turning up in Democratic state attorneys general offices and advocacy groups now challenging Trump policies in court, while law students, wary of the résumé risk and shifting enforcement priorities, are steering away from Washington. "This is a remarkable shift in talent out of the federal government to other places," Harvard Law School professor Andrew Mergen tells the Times, which describes the president's "willingness to blow through traditional guardrails" as part of the reason for the exodus. On Sunday, Trump responded that the departures are a "very good" thing because they mean the loss of "Radical Left Deep State Lunatics, who are destroying our Country," per the Hill.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
