Jeff Clark will lead a new Oversight Project law firm designed to defend targets of investigations, lawsuits, subpoenas, and professional discipline. For years, the right has rented legal capacity by the hour. This week, the Oversight Project is changing that.
The firm, backed by a multi-million-dollar investment from philanthropist Tom Klingenstein, will provide rapid-response representation to individuals facing politically motivated subpoenas, investigations, lawsuits, and professional disciplinary actions—and pursue lawful remedies against those who abuse these processes. The next time one of their allies receives a subpoena, bar complaint, investigation, or lawsuit, someone will be there to answer it.
In practical terms, the Oversight Project is building something the right has long lacked: a public-defender-style legal network for its side. With Klingenstein’s help, the project aims to raise $10 million over two years and hire at least 15 lawyers. Clark already has a small legal team at the Oversight Project, which will expand with investigators to build specialized expertise in constitutional, administrative, ethics, and First Amendment law.
Jeff Clark understands the cost personally. He was arrested and indicted in Fulton County’s 2020 election case; those charges were later dismissed. He was swept into the federal investigation that became special counsel Jack Smith’s election case. He was subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee. And his D.C. Bar disciplinary case remains pending.
Clark knows what it costs to spend years inside criminal, congressional, and professional-disciplinary machinery. That’s one reason he is the right person to build this. The new firm will defend clients when subpoenas, bar complaints, investigations, or lawsuits land. Salaried, mission-driven lawyers inside a nonprofit can represent far more people for far less money than a model that depends entirely on outside counsel.
Defense, however, is only half the plan. Pairing the lawyers with Oversight Project investigators means they can also find records behind abusive conduct and pursue damages, fees, sanctions, and other lawful consequences where the facts support them. A movement that only absorbs blows will eventually be outspent and worn down. The goal is to change the cost calculation for anyone who believes legal process can be weaponized without consequence.
That distinction is critical. This is not a license to manufacture cases against political opponents. If they become what they say they oppose, they have built nothing worth defending. The answer to abusive legal process is aggressive, lawful representation backed by evidence.
The firm will also build the next generation. They want young lawyers to get real responsibility early, work beside experienced counsel, and learn how to run cases rather than spend years carrying bags for partners. Lawyers who choose public duty over careerism should have a path to leadership.
For too long, much of the conservative legal movement has focused on commercial and regulatory questions important to major institutions. Other organizations have done strong work on the First and Second Amendments, education, abortion, and religious liberty. They need that work. They also need lawyers ready to represent people fighting over election law, immigration, executive power, administrative government, and emerging legal fights around populist and nationalist policy.
The left built a legal machine because it understood that legal infrastructure is political infrastructure. The right cannot keep renting lawyers by the hour and hoping donor generosity arrives after the damage is done. Jeff Clark and the Oversight Project are building a permanent institution to defend allies and make abusive legal tactics more expensive to use. Judge them by the work.
But the next time one of their allies gets the subpoena, bar complaint, investigation, or lawsuit, someone will be there to answer it.
Mike Howell is the president of the Oversight Project.
