President Donald Trump and some of his most outspoken critics — among them comedian Jimmy Kimmel and the Walt Disney Corporation — have, at various times, been represented by the same attorney: Beth Wilkinson. Political analysts are now questioning whether that juggling act is sustainable.

The question was laid out in a report by The New York Times' Noam Scheiber published Sunday, which traced Wilkinson's remarkably varied client roster. "A former Justice Department official, Ms. Wilkinson has represented Democratic politicians facing sexual harassment or assault allegations and helped guide Justice Brett Kavanaugh through his messy Supreme Court confirmation fight," Scheiber wrote. "She has defended tobacco companies and drugmakers; she helped the National Football League fight concussion-related suits from ex-players and Microsoft defeat a Biden-era antitrust lawsuit."

Wilkinson's most recent marquee assignment is equally high-profile. "Earlier this year, the media mogul who controls Paramount, David Ellison, hired her to defend his $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery against an attempt by state attorneys general to derail it," Scheiber reported. "Mr. Ellison's father, Larry, a founder of Oracle, is close to the Trump administration, which had already blessed the merger."

With that record in view, Scheiber framed what he cast as an existential question for the profession: "Does the Trump mark the high point of the Washington superlawyer, by underscoring the value of Beltway actors who can toggle between MAGA acolytes and enemies?" he wrote. "Or, in an age when each side is more fevered and less tolerant of disloyalty, is the situationally flexible Washington lawyer on the verge of extinction?"

For insight, Scheiber turned to the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit economic reform group. "Asked how Democrats would regard lawyers like Ms. Wilkinson if the party retook the White House in 2028, the group's executive director, Nidhi Hegde, said some establishment Democrats would most likely praise her defense of ABC against the Trump administration," he wrote. "But, Ms. Hegde said, the case didn't wash away the stain of her work on behalf of David Ellison and Nexstar."

Hegde put the point more bluntly in her own words: "If Democrats are serious about actually being a party for working people, then they do really have to take seriously what she's facilitating with the complete consolidation of media markets. There's an inherent contradiction in being in lock step with people who facilitate this oligarchy that's getting more and more powerful."

Long before she took on anti-Trump clients, Wilkinson was widely reviled among progressives for her role in defending Kavanaugh. A particular flashpoint was a heated 2018 television interview with Katy Tur, then an anchor at MSNBC, now MS NOW.

Asked about one of the women who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, Tur pressed Wilkinson: "Are you calling her a liar?" Wilkinson replied that while she was "not calling her a liar," she found it suspicious that the accuser's attorney, Michael Avenatti, "never went to the police," adding, "if I had represented her, it would have been my duty to go to the police immediately."

Tur then asked whether Kavanaugh believes "any of the women who have came out and accused (President Trump) of sexual misconduct."

"I don't know what that has to do with this. I've never discussed that with him. We're talking about what's happening here. And I came today to be on your program to tell you exactly what he believes and what we know. And that's it. I'm not here to make political arguments and comment on what the president said or didn't say," Wilkinson responded.