Joe Lieberman joins law firm in New York

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is heading to a national law firm.

Lieberman will be senior counsel for Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman. The former four-term senator from Connecticut will based in the firm’s New York office and will focus on investigations and helping clients on “a wide range of public policy, strategic and regulatory issues,” according to the firm.

The former 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate will also help expand the firm’s international client work.
 
{mosads}“I am very happy to be joining Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP and excited to return to my roots as a lawyer and counselor with the opportunity to use the independent investigative skills I learned as Attorney General and during many Senate investigations,” Lieberman said in a statement.

Lieberman added there was “a personal side” for him to join the firm. Marc Kasowitz, the firm’s founding and managing partner, volunteered on Lieberman’s first campaign in 1970, and the two have known each other for more than 40 years.

“This is a great day for the firm and for our clients, as there are few individuals whose integrity, character and judgment match that of Sen. Lieberman. His incredible breadth of knowledge and experience will be a powerful resource,” Kasowitz said.
 
The firm has several offices across the country, including in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco and Miami.

Lieberman, who decided not to run for reelection last year, was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election. He left the Democratic Party after losing a primary race and ran as an independent in his 2006 Senate race. He also endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president in 2008 and spoke at the Republican National Convention that year.

Off Capitol Hill, Lieberman has also joined the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, as co-chairman of the American Internationalism Project.

As a former senator, Lieberman will have to wait two years to lobby his former colleagues under ethics rules. But he has indicated that he doesn’t plan to do advocacy work.

“I don’t want to be in a position ever to be lobbying my former colleagues in Congress,” Lieberman told The Wall Street Journal.