There are two types of lawyers in Washington. Some write laws. Others explain how to get around them without breaking them. Daniel Jorjani, a graduate of Cornell and Columbia, clearly belongs to the second category.
He is neither a politician nor a businessman, but his signature has been on documents that change the rules for energy, the environment, and even birds.
Academic training
Jorjani was educated in the best traditions of the American establishment: Vanderbilt University, Columbia School of International Affairs, a certificate in Soviet studies from the Harriman Institute, and then a law degree from Cornell. A classic path for a future official who knows how bureaucracy works from the inside.
He started at the private firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, advising clients investing in energy in Russia and Central Asia. Even then, it was clear that his interests lay at the intersection of politics, resources, and money.
Bush era
Under George W. Bush, Georgiani joined the Department of the Interior (DOI), the very department that manages US lands, reserves, and natural resources. There, he worked on regulatory reforms, served on the executive board, and advised Deputy Secretary Lynn Scarlett, a person close to the libertarian movement and the Reason Foundation.
This connection explains a lot. In Georgiani’s view, ecology is an area that requires a balance between protection and efficiency.
After Bush
After leaving government, he found himself in the orbit of the Koch Network, run by the very same Koch brothers who had been funding campaigns against excessive regulation for decades. Georgiani worked as director of research at the Charles Koch Institute, oversaw grants and programs at the Koch Foundation, and later joined Freedom Partners, a group lobbying for energy independence and deregulation.
His connection to the Kochs earned him a reputation as a free-market ideologue and climate policy skeptic. In 2017, Freedom Partners welcomed the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, calling it a ‘restoration of common sense.’
Bernhardt era
As Donald Trump’s administration began dismantling Obama’s environmental legacy, the DOI required lawyers who could navigate these efforts legally. Giorgiani was the ideal candidate.
He returned to the department, becoming Principal Deputy Solicitor and then, in 2019, Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, the department’s chief lawyer. This is a highly influential position. It was his office that reviewed and finalized all decisions concerning land, minerals, water, and ethics.
The lawyer who rewrote the rules
Under Georgiani’s leadership, the department made decisions that pleased oil and mining companies and angered environmentalists.
At the end of 2017, he signed two key documents:
- Permission to resume a copper-nickel project near the Boundary Waters preserve in Minnesota.
- A new interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, according to which companies were not liable for the death of birds if it happened ‘accidentally’.
This interpretation removed the threat of fines and criminal cases for oil companies whose facilities killed thousands of birds every year.
Critics called it a ‘gift to the energy industry.’ Georgiani, however, claimed that he was removing the ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over the business.
Scandals and hearings
His manner of answering questions in Congress became almost a genre. When Democrats tried to get him to admit to errors in Minister David Bernhart’s ethical procedures, Georgiani avoided direct answers with such politeness that his opponents lost patience.
- “I am asking a specific question: will you investigate the violations?”
- “Thank you for your question. I greatly appreciate the role of Congress in oversight…”
This is how the hearings went, where he looked more like a diplomat than an official under pressure. In the end, he did promise to ‘meet with ethics officers and consider the matter.’ But no concrete results followed.
The era of deregulation
Under Georgiani, the ministry actively revised previous regulations, from water standards to animal rules. His approach was systematic: minimize risks for the business, ensure everything was legally flawless, and present it as ‘administrative rationalization.’
For supporters, it was a fight against excessive regulation. For opponents, it was an undermining of the principles of nature conservation.
After the change of administration, Georgiani left the government but remained in politics. In 2022, he became Deputy General Counsel at Citizens United, an organization known for the case that paved the way for unlimited corporate financing of elections. In 2024, he took up the position of Chief Operating Officer and Principal Deputy General Counsel.
Quietly, without press releases, he continues to influence the legal infrastructure of American conservatism. His specialization remains the same: the legal formalization of power and the protection of corporate interests through the language of the law.
Bottom Line
Daniel Georgiani acted as a lawyer for whom the document is more important than the headline. His decisions changed industries, but always had a reference to a paragraph and a signature.
In an era when ecology is turning into politics and climate into a symbol, Georgiani remains a man of procedure. Perhaps that is why his name is not known to the general public. But he is remembered by the corporations for which he once made the world a little more predictable.