Former U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Moves to Shook

Shook welcomes Elliott Davis to the firm where he will join the Product Liability Litigation Practice Group. Davis brings deep legal strategy, briefing and oral argument experience to Shook, after serving at the United States Department of Justice in various roles with the Civil Division’s Torts and Federal Programs Branches, the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Legal Policy.

At the Department of Justice, Davis most recently defended the federal government from constitutional and statutory challenges to a number of Executive Branch actions, including several attacks on the implementation of the 2020 decennial census—two of which were ultimately reviewed by the Supreme Court and decided in favor of the government. Earlier in his DOJ career, he successfully defended the government in a number of high-profile tort cases relating to torture at Abu Ghraib prison, the Benghazi attack and the well-publicized corruption at the FBI’s Boston field office, among other matters.  He has argued and won before the Tenth Circuit, a three-judge district court and several single-judge district courts nationwide and has also contributed to and appeared on a number of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals briefs.

 “I’m proud of delivering crisp and persuasive written and oral advocacy—skills I’ve honed defending the federal government in some of its toughest cases,” said Davis, from his Washington, D.C. office.

Prior to his work at the U.S. Department of Justice, Davis practiced at an AmLaw 5 firm, where he represented pharmaceutical, healthcare and insurance companies for nearly eight years.

“I look forward to working on complex legal issues and appeals with many of the nation’s leading litigators, and am confident that I can bring great value to the firm and its clients,” said Davis.

The Harvard Law graduate earned several Department of Justice honors including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, DOJ’s second-highest award for employee performance. Davis earned his Bachelor of Science, magna cum laude, in Computer Science from Cornell University’s College of Engineering.