More Than 10,000 Federal Lawyers Left Government Since 2025, Analysis Finds

WASHINGTON -- More than 10,000 lawyers have left the federal government since the start of 2025, leaving several agencies short of legal staff and swelling the ranks of Democratic state attorneys general offices and advocacy groups challenging administration policies in court, according to a New York Times analysis of federal employment data published May 31.

The analysis found that roughly one in five lawyers who worked for the federal government at the end of 2024 had departed by March 2026, according to reporting by Times journalists Andrea Fuller and Eileen Sullivan. The federal government employed about 37,000 civilian lawyers as of that date, a 17 percent decline from late 2024 levels, according to the Times data.

The Department of Justice shed 21 percent of its attorneys, a loss of more than 2,600 lawyers over roughly 16 months, according to an analysis by the legal publication Above the Law, which cited the Times figures. Six agencies lost more than a quarter of their legal staffs. The Department of Education recorded the steepest drop, losing 53 percent of the lawyers it had at the start of Trump's second term, according to the Times.

Many of the departures reflected staffing cuts imposed by the administration. Others left voluntarily. An analysis cited in multiple outlets found that many departing lawyers moved to Democratic state attorneys general offices or nonprofit groups that are actively litigating against administration policies, adding seasoned federal litigators to the opposition.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told the Times that demand from former federal lawyers was direct and pointed. "There's all this awareness that people in the federal government are dissatisfied, are angry, are frustrated, and want no part of it," Weiser said, adding that lawyers were seeking work with offices "that actually operate with integrity."

President Trump, responding Sunday on Truth Social after the Times piece published, said the departures were welcome. "The people that are leaving are Radical Left Deep State Lunatics, who are destroying our Country, and Weaponizing Government," Trump wrote, according to The Hill. "Many of them didn't leave, but were fired."

The Department of Homeland Security was a notable exception to the broader attrition trend. It added lawyers during the period, driven by a surge of immigration litigation tied to the administration's mass deportation program, according to an analysis of the Times data reviewed by The Independent.

The Department of Education, which Secretary Linda McMahon told senators in April she was attempting to rebuild, had moved to rehire some dismissed lawyers to address a backlog of civil rights complaints, according to reporting reviewed by The Independent.

Former HUD lawyer Erik Heins, who was fired last year after raising concerns about fair housing attorneys being reassigned, told the Times that the thinning of legal staff had operational consequences. Without lawyers, "there are a lot of things that just can't get done," Heins said, according to The Hill's account of the Times report.

Despite federal agencies hiring approximately 3,200 lawyers during the 15-month period covered by the analysis, departures outpaced recruitment by a wide margin, according to figures cited in the American Greatness summary of the Times data.

The Times analysis did not address whether the reduction in federal legal staff had affected any specific pending litigation. The administration faces hundreds of active lawsuits across federal courts challenging executive orders, agency rule changes, and immigration enforcement actions.

Sources cited:
- The New York Times (via The Hill) (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5903296-lawyers-leaving-trump-administration/)
- Above the Law (https://abovethelaw.com/2026/06/10000-federal-lawyers-are-gone-and-trumps-response-basically-confirms-why-they-left/)
- The Independent (via stopthedonaldtrump.com) (https://www.stopthedonaldtrump.com/2026/05/31/more-than-10000-lawyers-have-left-the-trump-administration-leaving-multiple-agencies-understaffed-report-says-the-independent/)
- American Greatness (https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/01/nyt-reports-leftist-progressive-lawyers-flee-trump-administration/)