Who Is Paul Clement, the Lawyer Appointed to Help Judge in Adams Case?

Paul D. Clement, tapped by a federal judge to present independent arguments about whether to drop a corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, is a conservative attorney who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court.

Mr. Clement, 58, was a solicitor general, the federal government’s top appellate lawyer, and also a deputy solicitor general. He served under President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2008. During that time he appeared before the court to defend a number of government policies, including the detention of enemy combatants at Guantánamo Bay, and to argue against late-term abortion and the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

After leaving the Bush administration, Mr. Clement argued a range of cases as a litigator in private practice, continuing to focus on conservative causes. He litigated against the Obama administration, including by defending an aggressive anti-immigration law in Arizona and arguing that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional.

Mr. Clement also defended the National Football League against the quarterback Tom Brady in a case involving the star’s suspension over his deflation of footballs to make them easier to grip.

In 2016, Mr. Clement joined the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, and in 2020, he was floated as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court by President Trump after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

After the court in 2022 struck down a New York law that restricted concealed weapons, Kirkland & Ellis said it would no longer defend cases involving the Second Amendment. Mr. Clement left to start a boutique firm that would continue that work, among other cases.

Mr. Clement attended Georgetown University for his undergraduate studies, before receiving a law degree from Harvard University in 1992. After law school, he clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then on the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia.

On Friday, Judge Dale E. Ho delayed a ruling on a Justice Department request to drop the corruption case against Mr. Adams, instead appointing Mr. Clement to present independent arguments on the motion, which was otherwise unopposed.