WASHINGTON – Attorneys Steve Lehotsky and Scott Keller have partnered to form Lehotsky Keller, a national boutique law firm that will focus on regulatory challenges expected as the Biden administration rolls out its agenda.
The firm officially launched on Feb. 1 and will assist clients with challenges to federal, state and local regulations, as well as defending their client’s interests in federal and state courts throughout the nation, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’ll aim to help our clients with regulatory challenges – and opportunities – at every level of government, regardless of the political party in power,” Lehotsky told The Record.
With Trump out and President Biden in, Lehotsky expects that there will be a more aggressive regulatory and enforcement posture at the federal level.
“But that will also be the case at the state and city level, too,” Lehotsky said. “And the position of business vis-à-vis the two political parties has become far more complex and nuanced.”
Before forming Lehotsky Keller, Lehotsky had directed litigation strategy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, including efforts to challenge regulations of the IRS, EPA and Homeland Security, as well as issues in California and Seattle.
“I helped lead successful litigation strategies against both the Obama and Trump administrations, and the results we achieved for our economy to shape the law through the courts cut across party lines and divisions that have fractured the country,” Lehotsky said.
Lehotsky previously was an attorney at WilmerHale, where he practiced government and regulatory and appellate litigation. He also practiced as a commercial litigator at Goodwin Procter.
In addition, Lehotsky was an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Before setting out on those paths, Lehotsky was a law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
“Justice Scalia was a tremendous mentor,” Lehotsky said. “He was a teacher first and foremost – whether he was imparting wisdom to his clerks (the ‘clerkerati’ as he called us) or to current and future generations of lawyers in his dissents, his greatest skill was in teaching people how to think about the law.
“I am very fortunate to have worked at his elbow for a year, and to be a part of that clerk family.”
Keller is a former solicitor general of Texas who, prior to partnering with Lehotsky, lead the Houston-based multinational firm Baker Botts' Supreme Court practice.
He has argued 11 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and 10 before the Texas Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit.
“Scott (Keller) has the triple double,” Lehotsky said. “He’s the only practicing attorney with at least ten arguments in each of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and the Fifth Circuit.”
Lehotsky and Keller have known each other for more than a decade and first met while clerking together at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I am excited to start this firm with Scott,” Lehotsky said. “We look forward to advising and representing our clients to help them rise to meet the unprecedented economic, political, and social challenges facing our country.”
(Editor's note: The Southeast Texas Record is owned by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform).