Democrats’ top Senate finance committee lawyer joins K&L Gates

(Reuters) – The Democratic Party’s top attorney on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax and international trade issues, is rejoining U.S. law firm K&L Gates, the firm said Wednesday.

Michael Evans, who practiced at the firm from 2003 to 2014, will be a partner in its public policy and law practice in Washington, D.C. starting Monday, he said.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the finance committee’s current chairman, hired Evans away from K&L Gates in 2014 to serve as the panel’s Democratic chief counsel and deputy staff director.

Prior to joining K&L Gates in 2003, Evans spent nearly 20 years working for Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, serving as the Democrats’ top lawyer on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

“It was a good time to wind up my Senate career and move onto something else,” Evans said about his decision to leave his Capitol Hill post. “27 years is a pretty good run in the Senate.”

Under Wyden, Evans helped shape the Inflation Reduction Act, a $430 billion bill that was designed to lower domestic greenhouse gas emissions, prescription drug prices and high inflation. The Senate approved the legislation in August.

He also advised Wyden on the budget reconciliation process, which allows budget-related legislation to avoid the 100-seat chamber’s 60-vote threshold for most bills and pass on a simple majority. Senate Democrats have used the parliamentary maneuver to pass both the Inflation Reduction Act and a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package.

Evans said he doesn’t think his practice has changed much between 2014 and now, although reconciliation — with all of its rules — “is more prominent now than it was 15 years ago.”

Read more:

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