‘Big Law’ Leftists Rage as Dem-Aligned Law Firm Targeted by Trump Caves After EO
“This Paul Weiss capitulation is the most disgraceful action by a major law firm in my lifetime, so appalling that I couldn’t believe it at first. Any lawyers at that firm—partners or associates—who don’t promptly resign will defile their moral and professional reputations beyond repair.”
Leftists in the “Big Law” community and their NeverTrump allies are seething with rage after a powerhouse Democrat-aligned law firm that aided in the Manhattan prosecution of Donald Trump struck a deal with the president this week to get him to withdraw an executive order that could have led to a revocation of their security clearances pending review and potentially cost them billions of dollars in clientele:
Donald Trump on Thursday rescinded an executive order he signed less than a week ago targeting the Paul, Weiss law firm, citing an agreement with the firm that includes pro bono support for the administration’s initiatives.
Trump posted on Truth Social that he had agreed to withdraw the order he signed March 14, which called for a review of security clearances and government contracts with the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP law firm, called Paul, Weiss for short.
[…]
As part of the agreement, the law firm agreed it would not deny representation to clients based on political views; that it would not use any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies; and that it would dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services to support the Trump administration’s initiatives such as assisting veterans, combating antisemitism and “fairness in the Justice System.”
NEW: Trump and law firm Paul, Weiss squash the beef after Trump agrees to drop the Executive Order and Paul, Weiss agrees to pay $40M in pro bono legal work to the administration, take on all political clients, drop DEI policies, and agree to be non-partisan. pic.twitter.com/IJfnJb6W22
— Autism Capital
(@AutismCapital) March 20, 2025
I obtained a copy of the firm-wide email and attachment that Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul Weiss, sent to employees on Thursday evening.
The documents detail the agreement Karp reached with the White House before Trump rescinded his executive order targeting the firm. pic.twitter.com/pQauJi6eS4
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) March 21, 2025
While Mr. Karp touted how the agreement did not amount to the law firm turning its back on its alleged principles, the New York Times reported that after considering suing the Trump administration, Paul, Weiss bent the knee because of money:
In deciding to bend to Mr. Trump, Mr. Karp likely saved his law firm, which had $2.63 billion in revenue last year and represents corporate clients like Exxon Mobil and Apollo Global Management, from hemorrhaging clients and lawyers.
Reactions to the news among Big Law leftists and their lawfare-supporting allies were pretty predictable:
This is a time when all institutions need to stand up to Trump’s illegal bullying.
This craven move by the Paul, Weiss law firm is capitulation at its very worst. It’s a short road to tyranny when well-heeled firms surrender to political blackmail. https://t.co/HY0PjRTDY4 pic.twitter.com/LwUyDT3riv
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) March 21, 2025
I'm so embarrassed that I was a summer associate at Paul Weiss. And I don't know how any person of principle could remain there. Rather than serve democracy, they bent the knee to keep their money raining in.
Pathetic. https://t.co/twEI4QGko6
— Neera Tanden
(@neeratanden) March 22, 2025
This Paul Weiss capitulation is the most disgraceful action by a major law firm in my lifetime, so appalling that I couldn’t believe it at first.
Any lawyers at that firm—partners or associates—who don’t promptly resign will defile their moral and professional reputations beyond…
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 21, 2025
Just sent this text to my law school classmate, who is the chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell, and is representing Donald Trump on his criminal appeal, and who I suspect helped broker the Paul Weiss deal. Brad Karp is the chairman of Paul Weiss. pic.twitter.com/s9tVwIqwzo
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) March 21, 2025
Hours after the Paul Weiss news broke, an associate at Skadden Arps sent a firm-wide email: "Please consider this email my two week notice, revocable if the firm comes up with a satisfactory response to the current moment…We do not have time. It is now or it is never, and if… pic.twitter.com/6dz9wbwEVP
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) March 21, 2025
If you're a Paul Weiss partner with a few million in business interested in getting to a firm with a backbone let me know.
Because it seems as though this was done for purely financial reasons and I've got a theory that some big books aren't gonna be on board with this.
— Joe Patrice (@JosephPatrice) March 21, 2025
A Paul Weiss alum sends @samstein a note on the “shame” they’re feeling over capitulation to Trump https://t.co/GnoRFd1fiz via @BulwarkOnline pic.twitter.com/8VPEq2tsRn
— Adrian Carrasquillo adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social (@Carrasquillo) March 21, 2025
Wrong. The real headline:
"Trump Seizes Partial Control of Paul, Weiss, the Big New York Big Law Firm, After His Threats Force It to Surrender"@FAIRmediawatch @froomkin @protecttruth_ pic.twitter.com/TLdfoFz5sg— James North (@jamesnorth7) March 20, 2025
Here’s a little background (from 2023) on Paul, Weiss and its efforts as a Resistance-approved law firm:
For a law firm to lend not one but three lawyers to the Manhattan D.A.’s office seems rather magnanimous, until you consider Paul, Weiss’s previous generosity to Joe Biden. During Biden’s White House run, the law firm hosted a $2,800-per-plate fundraiser for about 100 guests.
The chair of the Paul, Weiss law firm, Brad Karp, also topped the list of Biden fundraisers, bundling at least $100,000 for the then-candidate. “As someone who cares passionately about preserving the rule of law, safeguarding our democracy and protecting fundamental liberties, I’ve been delighted to do everything I possibly can to support the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket,” Karp wrote in an email.
Karp’s support of the Democrat presidential ticket isn’t surprising given that his fellow Paul, Weiss partner Robert Schumer is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s brother.
Biden’s connection to the firm, however, dates much further back, with the former secretary of homeland security in the Obama-Biden administration, Jeh Johnson, also heralding from Paul, Weiss. Once elected president, Biden nominated Jonathan Kanter, a former partner of Paul, Weiss, to serve as the top antitrust enforcement official at the Justice Department. In fact, according to Bloomberg, Paul, Weiss has “emerge[d] as Biden-Era N.Y. Power Center.”
Former Obama-Biden Attorney General Loretta Lynch is also a partner at the firm.
Also, there was this:
Just a little background on Paul Weiss: It’s probably the largest campaign contributor to Dems in the legal profession. Judge Kaplan who presided over the E Jean Carroll case against Trump, is a former partner
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) March 15, 2025
Relatedly, here’s something to revisit later this year:
These Paul Weiss numbers will be interesting to compare in a few months. Thanks Pirical. pic.twitter.com/2iWihjBXFF
— Erin Durant (she/her) (@ErinDurant42) March 20, 2025
Indeed.
-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-
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Comments
It’s bullying when the victims strike back, if you’re a lefty.
Or bite back. Remember, they’re called sharks for a reason.
.
The law firm is a business and they don’t want to sink on Dem’s Titanic:)
b/c congress has happily jettisoned its responsibilities while keeping their powers
we the people are in deeeeppppp (state) trouble
“…partners or associates—who don’t promptly resign will defile their moral and professional reputations beyond repair.”
Uh, comrade, they had neither to begin with or they wouldn’t have been involved in the first place. Pay up commie libs. Rinse off later.
It would be great if you could do a post listing all the times law firms who had the temerity to work for Trump were attacked by law associations.
This. Remember them trying to get every attorney that worked for Trump or anyone associated with him fired, disbarred, and prosecuted? Trump is far too nice.
When Bush brought a knife, Obama brought a gun. Trump just brought a grenade. (Joe was busy playing “can you help me find my puppy?”)
Here’s a clue. The puppy was not in the shower with his daughter, and it wasn’t up Tara Reade’s charcuterie.
Trump should have left the clearance block in place. I mean, does anyone think the next time the Dems are in the white house this utterly corrupt and immoral law firm isn’t going to go right back to the way it was when it was trying to destroy Trump and anyone who worked with or for him?Trump can be a fool. Because he has no principles, no real governing philosophy–the man is a pure utilitarian/pragmatist, which isn’t horrible–he is easily swayed by baloney (phony recantation). To me, destroying this firm, if it came to that, was the way to go. Losing billions might have opened their eyes, for just a second.
Up here in MA, we have Wilmer-Hale, another leftist combine that presently houses Jamie Gorelick & Robert Mueller, and formerly housed Bill Weld, Maura Healey & Alejandro Mayorkas. They are what they are: evil and corrupt. They need to be done away with. Wilmer Hale just billed the idiot mayor of Boston almost $700,000 to give her an illegal immigration tune up before her congressional testimony. Anyone think that bill didn’t include some padding?
If you listen to the leftist response to this Paul Weiss capitulation, you hear exactly what the people at this law firm believe. They want money. They would kill you for a buck. They have not seen the light. And never will. Trump needs to obliterate his inner Mitt Romney.
I am enjoying their rage.
Maybe they will all suffer a mass myocardial infarction and make our world a better place.
George Conway has to be one of the biggest aholes out there. The rest of them are not far off. What this law firm agreed to is eminently reasonable and what I would expect of any law firm. Any lawyer or judge for that matter who thinks differently should be disbarred for lack of ethics.
While I don’t trust them to honor the agreement and question President Trump’s judgement in not utterly destroying this vile nest of vipers, it’s quite nice to see one of those wretched and corrupt consent decree type agreements work in favor of the good guys, just once.
That “$40 million” in pro bono work isn’t gonna cost the firm anywhere near that amount in real money. Unless they’re total dickheads there;s gonna be SOME pro bono work they already are doing that isn’t a total sell out to (D) wackos. Add to that “normal billing practices” of major law firms and lawyers in general – a 2-minute phone call is booked as a 15 minute block “because it interrupts the “workflow”.
The joke goes….
“A young lawyer dies unexpectedly and found himself facing St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter congratulated him on living to the ripe old age of 110 years. In reply, he groused that there must be some mistake, he was only in his 30s and way too young to have died of old age as St. Peter claimed. St. Peter raised an eye brow, and told him wait a sec, I’ll double check the records. After flipping thru the paper work, St. Peter responded – No, no mistake, it’s all documented by your own records.
The lawyer sputtered and asked – How can that be?
By what records?
St. Peter responded – Well, by your own timesheets OC.
Indeed. I knew a lawyer who bragged to me that while driving to court (billing his client for the time), he would make phone calls to other clients. He would bill for 15 minutes (minimum billing unit) even if the phone didn’t answer. That time spent driving was billed many times over. Another lawyer, while on an airplane, would bill one client for the time spent flying while he worked on other cases. Then another lawyer tried to bill for time while asleep claiming he dreamed about the case.
The only thing worse than a lawyer is a law professor. The only thing worse than a law professor is a judge.
“JACK CADE. I thank you, good people:– there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.
DICK. The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2
You’re favorably quoting the anarchist Jack Cade?
There’s nothing wrong with actual anarchy. It’s merely a condition of having no government. In order for such a state to be maintained, the people must behave lawfully towards one another. As soon as someone starts threatening the rights of others, those others will band together, forming a nascent government, and there goes the anarchic state.
But most “anarchists” are morons who think “anarchy” means “chaos,” “disruption,” and “destruction.” It means nothing of the sort. Such a situation, as remarked above, will result naturally in the victims banding together to put down the predators. Such predators can’t be real anarchists, because they themselves are behaving in a manner that will cause the demise of the anarchic state.
Sounds to me like fraud.
Present company excepted, of course.
Seems a lot like a pre-litigation consent agreement. They knew what was coming. The wrongs of colluding Democrats, top down, is apparent. It continues to morph, but also continues to be exposed. It is no witchhunt. Better here to acknowledge common sense and do what was right.
Maybe we should go back and bit and reexamine tar and feathering?
I am tired of multi millionaire lawyers and their firms talking about adhering to the “rule of law” and being concerned about “professionalism” and “ethics”. Facts are that lawyers are simply doing a job. Hollywood has made lawyering into a “profession” filled with ethical people who desperately want to adhere to the rule of law. Law firms are not what you see on Law and Order. Law schools are not filled with people who care about the common man. Its a job…just a job. For too many decades, law firms have convinced the public that charging someone hundreds/thousands of dollars per hour is evidence of
“good lawyers”. Lawyers who have gamed the system well, get to be “judges” where they can further game the system. I have a good idea, first, close down ALL law schools for 20 years. Then all lawyers actions will be viewed, not by a jury of other lawyers, but by the common man. Then hopefully the days of a minor injury in a real car accident does NOT result in a lawyer jumping to represent the victim to force a multi million dollar “settlement” of which half or more goes to the lawyer. If lawyers were really ethical, then hundreds of thousands of them would voluntarily give themselves up to go to jail. But they wont, since truth and justice doesn’t matter to them, just money and power.
Our judicial system is adversarial. It doesn’t care about truth or justice. It either selects for people to adhere to it or converts them once they’ve entered it.
I hope all the Lefties leave the firm. Then they can replace them with actual MAGA attorneys and hopefully the firm can find a way to keep the money rolling while actually doing good for the country.
It continues to amaze me that all of these (sometimes brilliant) grifters haven’t managed to come up with a grift that’s good for the country. Where is it written that all grift is evil, unpatriotic, and anti-populist? Is it impossible to grift and benefit the country?
BIG
FUCKING
MISTAKE
Re: Rachel Cohen, formerly (?) of Skadden Arps. On another forum, one poster insisted that because Ms. Cohen had her undergrad degree from Ohio State and her law degree from Harvard, that she could not possibly be a byproduct of nepotism or entitlement. I respectfully disagreed, saying that nepotism is rampant in every profession, be it medicine, law, pharmacy, bookbinding, or accounting or whatever. The reply back was “nepotism has no place at a “Top 5” law firm. I am a physician, so law is as strange to me as reading a chest plate (x-ray) would to a pastry chef, however I can surmise in large law firms nepotism would be rampant as it stands to reason a certain amount is always present. Am I wrong?
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