Attorney who counseled Democrats on impeachment leaves Judiciary Committee

"It was the honor of a lifetime to serve as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during this critical period in our nation’s history," Barry Berke wrote.

Barry Berke, the white-collar criminal defense attorney who served as legal counsel to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, announced on Wednesday that he would return to work at his New York-based law firm.

"It was the honor of a lifetime to serve as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during this critical period in our nation’s history," Berke wrote on Twitter. "I am thrilled to be returning to Kramer Levin, my friends and colleagues, my practice and our clients."

Kramer Levin said in a statement that Berke "played a prominent public-facing role in the House impeachment hearings, where he gave the opening statement for the committee and questioned key witnesses to much acclaim." The firm said he would resume his previous post as co-chair of Kramer Levin’s litigation department.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) hired Berke and former Obama White House ethics chief Norm Eisen in February 2019 to advise the committee as it conducted oversight of the Justice Department and former special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Eisen, who co-founded the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is also expected to depart the panel shortly.

Following the conclusion of Mueller's work in May, Berke and Eisen helped lead the closed-door deposition of former Trump aide Hope Hicks in June, and Berke achieved a measure of public acclaim for his deft interrogation of former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski during a Judiciary panel hearing in September.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) launched an impeachment investigation into Trump's conduct later that month, Berke and Eisen re-focused their efforts on the mounting Ukraine scandal — eventually assisting in authoring the Judiciary Committee's 55-page report, published in December, that laid out the legal arguments for removing the president from office.