# Jones Day

Jones Day is an American multinational law firm based in Washington, D.C. As of 2023, it is one of the largest law firms in the United States, with 2,302 attorneys, and among the highest-grossing in the world with revenues of $2.5 billion. Founded in 1893, the firm was originally headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. It has represented over half of the companies in the Fortune 500, including Goldman Sachs, General Motors, McDonald's, and Bridgestone. Jones Day has also represented the campaign of current president Donald Trump.
Many attorneys from Jones Day have served as federal officials or judges, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former White House Counsel Don McGahn, former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, former Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, and U.S. court of appeals judges Jeffrey Sutton, Gregory G. Katsas, Timothy B. Dyk, Chad Readler, and Eric E. Murphy.

## History

Jones Day was founded in Cleveland in 1893 as Blandin & Rice by two partners, Edwin J. Blandin and William Lowe Rice. Frank Ginn joined the firm in 1899, and it changed its name to Blandin, Rice & Ginn. Rice was murdered in August 1910. In 1912, Thomas H. Hogsett joined the firm as partner, and it became Blandin, Hogsett & Ginn that year, and Tolles, Hogsett, Ginn & Morley a year later after the retirement of Judge Blandin and the addition of partners Sheldon H. Tolles and John C. Morley. After Morley retired, in 1928, the firm adopted the name Tolles, Hogsett & Ginn.
In its early years, the firm was known for representing major industries in the Cleveland area, including Standard Oil and several railroad and utility companies.
In November 1938, then managing partner Thomas Jones led the merger of Tolles, Hogsett & Ginn with litigation-focused firm Day, Young, Veach & LeFever to create Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis. The merger was effective January 1, 1939. The firm's Washington, D.C., office was opened in 1946, becoming the firm's first office outside Ohio. In 1967, the firm merged with D.C. firm Pogue & Neal to become Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
Jones Day has a reputation for representing companies against labor unions.

### International expansion

The international expansion of Jones Day began in 1986 when the firm merged with boutique law firm Surrey & Morse, a firm of 75 attorneys with international offices in New York City, Paris, London, and Washington, D.C. In the following years, the firm expanded to Hong Kong, Brussels, Tokyo, Taipei, and Frankfurt.

### Republican Party and conservative politics

Jones Day has historically focused on corporate law, but has increasingly shifted to aiding the Republican Party and the American conservative movement since the 2000. This shift began when Stephen Brogan became managing partner of Jones Day in 2003. Subsequently, the firm increasingly took on ideologically charged cases and causes. During the Barack Obama administration, Jones Day challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
During the first Donald Trump administration, Jones Day helped the administration to dismantle the administrative state, combat early voting, and place a citizenship question on the census. The firm provided services to Donald Trump for his personal legal problems, as well as helped the Donald Trump 2016 campaign amid investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. This defense included trying to control which documents to hand over to investigators and which staff members to make available for interviews.
Jones Day partner Don McGahn, who was previously a member of the Federal Election Commission, served as counsel for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and was later nominated to serve as Trump's White House Counsel. As of March 2017, at least 14 Jones Day attorneys had been appointed to work for the Trump administration.
Jones Day was outside counsel for the Trump 2016 and Trump 2020 campaigns. From 2015 to November 2020, Jones Day received more than $20 million in fees from the Trump campaigns. Jones Day earned more than $4.5 million for Trump 2020 campaign work between January 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020.
In 2020, Jones Day was hired by Trump in his legal fight to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. The firm worked for Trump in trying to have courts toss out Pennsylvania mail votes. According to The New York Times, Jones Day "was giving voice — and legal backing — to the president’s unsubstantiated fear-mongering about the possibility of an election tainted by fraud." However, the firm said it "is not representing President Trump, his campaign, or any affiliated party in any litigation alleging voter fraud." Jones Day also said it "is not representing any entity in any litigation challenging or contesting the results of the 2020 general election" and that "media reports to the contrary are false." According to The New York Times, Jones Day's post-election justifications for its role in the 2020 election "blurred a basic fact: Jones Day and its lawyers were trying to stop votes from being counted, all in an effort to serve the client."
After Trump left office, Jones Day hired a significant number of former Trump administration lawyers, including Don McGahn and Noel Francisco.
When Trump became president again in January 2025, the Trump administration hired Jones Day partner Brett Shumate to lead the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.

## Operations

As of 2018, Jones Day was the fifth largest law firm in the U.S. and the 13th highest grossing law firm in the world. It is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C.

### Compensation

The firm compensates each associate (after their first year) uniquely, based on the quality of their work and jurisdiction. Unlike many peer firms, Jones Day does not pay a year-end or mid-year bonus, compensating associates entirely with salary. Its attorneys' salaries are not public and are not determined solely by class year. The firm has long said that its "black box" compensation system breeds collegiality, and that its associates—even though they are not paid a bonus—generally earn the same as, or more than, associates at other major firms. New associates have a starting salary of US$225,000. Some associates have said that they are under-compensated compared to their peers at other firms, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars, and that their compensation is much lower than what they were promised when they interviewed.

## Notable clients and cases

The firm's attorneys have argued more than 40 cases before the United States Supreme Court. Some of the firm's notable clients and cases include:
* The firm has represented R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company since 1985. At one point, R.J Reynolds accounted for 19% of Jones Day's annual revenue. Jones Day continues to represent R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in high-profile litigation around the country.
* As of 2009 the firm represented Access Industries
* In 2012, the firm challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
* As of 2013 Jones Day represented the losing party – a startup Myriad Genetics, Inc. – at the US Supreme Court in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.
* As of 2014 it served as lead restructuring counsel to the City of Detroit in connection with its chapter 9 bankruptcy case filed in July 2013 In re City of Detroit, Michigan, No. 13-bk-53846 (Bankr. E.D. Mich.)
* As of 2017 it represented National Public Radio in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency's ("FEMA") withholding of critical information. National Public Radio, Inc., et al. v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, et al., No. 1-17-cv-00091 (D.D.C.)
* In 2020 the firm submitted a brief of amicus curiae on behalf of its client Chevron in Nestle v. Doe, raising the pleading requirements for plaintiffs stating a claim under the Alien Tort Statute.
* As of 2021 the firm represented the National Rifle Association of America
* As of 2021 the firm represented the Alabama Association of Realtors in a successful legal challenge to the Center for Disease Control's nationwide eviction moratorium (Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services). The CDC eviction moratorium covered approximately 30-40 million renters at risk of eviction.
* As of 2022 the firm represented Chevron in a MDL-class action lawsuit, denying that its herbicide product Paraquat causes the onset of Parkinson's disease.
* As of 2022 the firm represented the Arizona Republican Party in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee. Jones Day successfully defended against the DNC's legal challenge to Arizona voting laws that had a disparate impact on racial minorities.
* As of 2022 the firm served as outside counsel for the Trump 2016 and Trump 2020 campaigns. Jones Day collected more than $19 million from Trump's operation since 2020.
* As of 2022 the firm represented the North American Coal Corporation in a legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's rule-making power under the Clean Air Act (West Virginia v. EPA).
* As of 2023 the firm represented Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation

## Notable attorneys and alumni

* Marvin Bower, McKinsey & Co. consultant
* Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, former U.S. congresswoman
* James Brokenshire, Northern Ireland Secretary under Prime Minister Theresa May
* Yvette McGee Brown, first African-American female justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio
* David L. Carden, former U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
* Alex Chalk KC, former Lord Chancellor and Member of Parliament for Cheltenham
* Timothy Dyk, judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
* Noel Francisco, former United States Solicitor General in the Donald Trump administration
* Benjamin Ginsberg, lawyer
* Erwin Griswold, former United States Solicitor General and Harvard Law School Dean
* Jane Harman, former U.S. congresswoman
* Justin Herdman, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
* Sundaresh Menon, Chief Justice of Singapore
* Gregory Katsas, judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
* Megyn Kelly, journalist
* Deborah Platt Majoras, former Procter & Gamble Chief Legal Officer; former Federal Trade Commission chair
* Donald McGahn, former White House Counsel in the Donald Trump administration
* Carmen Guerricagoitia McLean, associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
* Eric E. Murphy, judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
* Morgan E. O'Brien, former co-founder and chairman of Nextel Communications
* Kevyn Orr, former emergency financial manager for Detroit, Michigan
* Chaka Patterson, fundraiser for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, former Chief of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Civil Division
* L. Welch Pogue, former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board
* Chad Readler, judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
* Antonin Scalia, former Supreme Court associate justice
* Jeffrey Sutton, judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

## Pro bono work

* Since 2014, representing migrants, primarily women and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, with staffed office in Laredo,Texas.
* Launched Global Compendium of Laws on human trafficking- the first standardized collection of the relevant laws, on a country-by-country basis with the Rotary Action Group Against Slavery (RAGAS).
* With the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children wrote "The Attorney Manual: Guide to Representation of Children Victimized by the Online Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material," a more than 400-page document free to lawyers looking to help victims on a pro bono basis.
* With the American Bar Association, created VetLex, a national pro bono legal network to help veterans find volunteer attorneys that provide free and low-cost legal services.

## Rankings and awards

BTI has ranked Jones Day as the only firm to earn "Most Recommended Law Firm" for 20 consecutive years and also ranked it as "Fearsome Foursome" nine times since 2011.
Law360 named Jones Day a "Ceiling Smasher" in 2022 as one of the top 10 firms having the highest representation of women in equity partnership and as M&A Group of the Year in 2015.
The American Lawyer named Jones Day winner of the Litigation Department of the Year in 2017.