Blog Post

10 fascinating facts about the world’s biggest law firm

June 22, 2017 | by NCC Staff

The Department of Justice was created on this day in 1870. Here’s a quick look at what’s sometimes called "the biggest law firm in the world."

Dept_of_Justice535Today, the department, also known by its acronym DOJ, is involved in a lot of matters. The DOJ has more than 114,000 employees and more than 10,000 attorneys, according to a job-recruiting guide issued by the department.

So how did the federal government deal with legal matters before 1870, without an army of attorneys?

1. The pre-DOJ had one employee. The Judiciary Act of 1789 created the office of Attorney General, but the First Congress only saw it as a part-time job. Founding Father Edmund Randolph was the first person to hold the office. Randolph was a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, and he left his Attorney General position in 1795 to become Secretary of State.

2. The federal legal system was decentralized before 1870. The Attorney General didn’t have a clerk for the office’s first 27 years, and the AG had no jurisdiction over district attorneys. Private lawyers were hired to work for him as needed.

3. Several Presidents lobbied for an early DOJ and failed. Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk both asked Congress to form a department consisting of all federal law offices, but they were denied. Then the Interior Department in 1849 became the custodians of federal attorneys, along with the Treasury Department.

4. Reconstruction and professionalism forced the creation of the DOJ. A host of complicated legal problems arising from the Civil War and Reconstruction finally forced Congress to relent and created a Justice Department. President Ulysses Grant sign the act forming the DOJ on June 22, 1870. At the time, bar associations were also forming to help regulate and organize the legal profession.

5. The Solicitor General’s office was an outcome of the 1870 act. As part of the new law, a person was appointed to argue cases on behalf the DOJ and the President at the Supreme Court. Since Benjamin Bristow became the first Solicitor General in 1870, 45 people have held that high-profile position.

6. Only one Solicitor General has moved on to become President. In 1890, a young William Howard Taft was named as the sixth Solicitor General. In later years, Solicitors General Robert Jackson, Stanley Reed and Elena Kagan would move onto the Supreme Court.

7. There have been 83 people to hold the Attorney General’s office. But no former Attorney General later became President. Future Supreme Court Justices Robert Jackson, Frank Murphy, James McReynolds, Roger Taney and Harlan Stone held the office at some point in their careers.

8. The Justice Department is an international organization. The DOJ has offices in more than 100 countries, in addition to its field offices with the United States and its territories.

9. The vast majority of DOJ attorneys are involved in litigation. As of 2011, the department said 88 percent of its lawyers work in one of eight litigation divisions.

10. More than just attorneys. The Justice Department also includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and the federal Bureau of Prisons.


 
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