William McGinley's hiring is the latest addition to Trump’s team of more experienced political hands. | Getty Donald Trump hires top GOP lawyer for delegate fight

Donald Trump has made another new significant hire as he prepares for the possibility of a contested convention, bringing William McGinley, a prominent Republican political attorney and a veteran of past delegate battles, into his campaign.

McGinley is expected to advise the Trump campaign on delegate selection battles in the upcoming states and on possible challenges to the credentials of delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, according to people familiar with the hiring.


In 2012, McGinley served as counsel to the convention’s rules committee and he is currently a partner at Jones Day, the same law firm as Don McGahn, Trump’s top political attorney. McGinley is expected to travel to Florida this week, POLITICO has learned, where Republican National Committee members are gathering for their spring meeting amid an ongoing fight over the rules that will govern the convention.

McGinley knows the legal inner workings of the Republican Party’s rules as well as almost anyone. At the 2012 GOP convention, he pushed the credentials committee, which determines which delegates are seated, to swap out 10 Ron Paul delegates from Maine for 10 aligned with Mitt Romney.

He has previously served as deputy counsel to the RNC, and as counsel to the RNC’s Standing Committee on Rules. He has also worked as general counsel to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and more recently represented numerous members of Congress who have found themselves in ethical hot water.

McGinley's hiring is the latest addition to Trump’s team of more experienced political hands, as the businessman outsider tries to shift his campaign from simply gathering the support of voters to accumulating the actual delegates who will cast ballots at the convention. Trump has previously hired Paul Manafort as his convention manager, and last week tapped Rick Wiley, Scott Walker’s former campaign manager, as his national political director.