David Bernhardt returns to law firm

By Heather Richards | 01/22/2025 04:43 PM EST

The former Interior secretary had been helping guide the department’s transition into a second Trump administration.

David Bernhardt looks ahead before a microphone at a committee hearing.

David Bernhardt speaks before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at his confirmation hearing to head the Interior Department on Capitol Hill on March 28, 2019. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

David Bernhardt, who served as Interior secretary during the first Trump administration, has rejoined the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in Washington, the firm said Tuesday.

Bernhardt, a former energy lobbyist, was a central figure in carrying out President Donald Trump’s public lands and energy strategy during the first administration and, more recently, helped guide the Interior Department transition for the second Trump administration.

Rich Benenson, Brownstein’s managing partner, said the firm, which is stacked with alumni from the first Trump administration, was “thrilled” to have Bernhardt back.

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“Secretary Bernhardt, literally, wrote a book on driving change within the first Trump administration. Our clients value his guidance,” Benenson said in a statement Tuesday. “Very few people actually possess his combination of administrative legal expertise coupled with over a decade of practical experience accomplishing the president’s priorities within various federal agencies.”

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