Kevin S. Elliker

Kevin is a counsel in the firm’s issues and appeals group, where he draws on his unique practice experience as a former federal prosecutor and investigative counsel for the US House of Representatives to advise and advocate for clients facing high-stakes appeals, litigation and government investigations.

Between 2021 and 2022, Kevin served as Investigative Counsel to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. In that role, Kevin conducted more than 60 interviews and depositions, provided Congressional briefings, coordinated the presentation of evidence for televised hearings, and contributed to the Committee’s final report. Before joining the Select Committee, Kevin served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he investigated and prosecuted fraud, weapons, drug and child-exploitation offenses. He successfully tried one case to a jury verdict and argued dozens of contested motions and hearings. He also supervised the Eastern District’s Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) review teams to identify leads for criminal investigations.

A native Virginian, Kevin graduated from James Madison University with undergraduate and master’s degrees and worked as a high school social studies teacher before attending law school. After graduating first in his class at William & Mary Law School, Kevin served as a law clerk to the Honorable John A. Gibney, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and then to the Honorable Robert B. King of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Following his clerkships, Kevin began his career as an associate in the firm’s Richmond office. In 2018, Kevin earned the firm’s annual writing award for the best legal brief written by an associate.

Kevin is admitted to practice before US Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the US Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits, and the US District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.

Kevin maintains an active pro bono practice and has represented pro se litigants with constitutional and civil rights claims in the Fourth Circuit and the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.

Relevant Experience

• Briefed, argued and secured reversal in Stewart v. Iancu, 912 F.3d 693 (4th Cir. 2019), a case of first impression regarding the application of Title VII’s 180-day waiting period for federal employees with claims of employment discrimination.

• Briefed In re Murphy-Brown, LLC, 907 F.3d 788 (4th Cir. 2018), a major First Amendment case in which the Fourth Circuit granted a writ of mandamus striking down as unconstitutional a “gag order” entered in multiple civil cases involving alleged agricultural nuisances.

• Briefed, argued and secured denial of class certification in Branch v. Government Employees Insurance Company, 323 F.R.D. 539 (E.D. Va. 2018), a putative class action brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

• Assisted in an independent review commissioned by the City of Charlottesville, Virginia, to examine the City’s response to protest events in the summer of 2017, resulting in a published report detailing the independent review’s findings.