With National Guard troops patrolling the nation’s capital, whole federal agencies being dismantled, and an ongoing purge inside the nation’s top law enforcement agencies, two Dartmouth alums who thought they were easing toward retirement are instead stepping back into pinstripe suits.
Tom Green and John Mott ’81 are among the founders of a nonprofit law firm formed in August to join the ever-widening political and legal battles unfolding over Trump administration policy. Green, the firm’s president, is literally no stranger to combat: He served in an artillery battery in Vietnam. He has battled as a lawyer, too, defending high-profile clients from charges involving Watergate to Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. He was planning a restful retirement at his home overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, but then the TV news would come on.
“I was just watching and getting progressively more upset at the cavalier treatment of thousands of people,” he says. “I began to feel it was imperative to do something.” That “something” became the Washington Litigation Group. One of Green’s first calls was to Mott, a retired D.C. Superior Court judge and veteran public defender. Mott was all-in to join the firm’s steering committee, noting that everyone involved “shared a common denominator: We value public service. We value the rule of law.”
Led by a team of Democrats and Republicans, the firm has enlisted attorneys to work pro bono to challenge the administration and defend federal workers they believe have been mistreated. “We’re a group of people from both parties who feel the same way,” Mott says. “Our institutions are under attack, under siege. It’s intentional and it’s wrong.” Green says the team is already winning public support. He jokes: “I get so many pats on the back about what we’re doing that I’ve had to check in with my orthopedist to make sure nothing’s been broken back there.”
