Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama has recruited at least 10 lawyers from top U.S. firms to his transition team, including three from Los Angeles-based O'Melveny & Myers and two from Boston-based WilmerHale.

Eight of the 10 worked in the administration of President Bill Clinton, among them former Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes, now at Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins. Attorneys from Debevoise & Plimpton, Jenner & Block and Boies, Schiller & Flexner also joined the 150-member team, according to Change.gov, the official Web site of the new administration.

Hayes, the global chairman of Latham's environment, land and resources practice, is on the 14-member working group charged with managing the sub-teams that will review government operations and advise Obama on policy, budgets and personnel. Three co-chairs will oversee the working group.

Two of Clinton's Justice Department veterans will be on the legal review team: David Ogden, co-chairman of WilmerHale's government and regulatory litigation group, and Tom Perrelli, managing partner of the Washington office of Chicago-based Jenner & Block.

Also in the Justice group is Alejandro Mayorkas, a corporate defense lawyer with O'Melveny who was U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles from 1998 to 2001.

Todd Stern, regulatory and governmental affairs partner at WilmerHale, will help review the office of the White House, where he worked from 1993 to 1999, according to his firm's biography. James Johnson, a litigation partner at New York-based Debevoise who served in the Treasury department under Clinton, will advise on the Commodity Future Trading Commission.

O'Melveny Members

O'Melveny's two other transition-team members are Michael Camunez and Tom Donilon. Camunez, a corporate litigator who advised Clinton on public service from 1993 to 1995, will take part in the review of the Corporation for National & Community Service. Donilon, a strategic counseling partner, will be on the team reviewing the State Department, where he served during the Clinton administration.

George Frampton, a partner at Armonk, New York-based Boies Schiller, will advise on the Council on Environmental Quality. He was chairman of the council under Clinton.

Robert Lenhard, an election lawyer at Washington-based Covington & Burling, who was a Democratic member of the bipartisan Federal Election Commission under President George W. Bush, will take part in the review of that agency.

Obama named a Cherokee Nation member to advise on the Interior Department: Keith Harper, chairman of the native American practice at Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton and former head of the Washington office of the Native American Rights Fund.

In addition, Gregory Craig, a Williams & Connolly partner who led the defense of President Bill Clinton during impeachment hearings, was selected to be White House counsel, Politico.com reported Nov. 15, citing Democratic officials.

Craig wasn't available for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cynthia Cotts in New York at ccotts@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 17, 2008 15:07 EST