You all know the story.
Trump has issued executive orders against Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss. Perkins has decided to fight. Paul Weiss has decided to settle.
The managing partner of Paul Weiss, Brad Karp, issued this firm-wide email explaining his decision to bend the knee and settle. It's hard to blame him. Here's a snippet:
We initially prepared to challenge the executive order in court, and a team of Paul, Weiss attorneys prepared a lawsuit in the finest traditions of the firm. But it became clear that, even if we were successful in initially enjoining the executive order in litigation, it would not solve the fundamental problem, which was that clients perceived our firm as being persona non grata with the Administration. We could prevent the executive order from taking effect, but we couldn’t erase it. Clients had told us that they were not going to be able to stay with us, even though they wanted to. It was very likely that our firm would not be able to survive a protracted dispute with the Administration.
At the same time, we learned that the Administration might be willing to reach a resolution with us. So, working with our outside counsel, we did exactly what we advise our clients to do in “bet the company” litigation every day: we talked with the Administration to see if we could achieve a lasting settlement that would not require us to compromise our core values and fundamental principles.
In a matter of days, we were able to negotiate such a resolution. That resolution, the terms of which I shared with all of you on Thursday evening, had three primary components. First, we reiterated our commitment to viewpoint diversity, including in recruiting and in the intake of new matters. Second, while retaining our longstanding commitment to diversity in all of its forms, we agreed that we would follow the law with respect to our employment practices. And third, we agreed to commit $10 million per year over the next four years in pro bono time in three areas in which we are already doing significant work: assisting our Nation’s veterans, countering anti-Semitism, and promoting the fairness of the justice system.
To be clear, and to clarify misinformation perpetuated from various media sources, the Administration is not dictating what matters we take on, approving our matters, or anything like that. We obviously would not, and could not ethically, have agreed to that. Instead, we have agreed to commit substantial pro bono resources, in addition to the $130+ million we already commit annually, in areas of shared interest. We will continue all of the existing pro bono work we already do and will continue in our longstanding role as a leader of the private bar in the pro bono and public interest sphere.
This existential crisis required the leadership of our law firm to make incredibly difficult decisions under extraordinary time pressure. In making those decisions, we were guided by two fundamental principles. First and foremost, we were guided by our obligation to protect our clients’ interests. As I mentioned earlier, we concluded that even a victory in litigation would not be sufficient to do so, because our firm would still be perceived as persona non grata with the Administration. We simply could not practice law in the Paul, Weiss way if we were still subject to the executive order. This resolution was unambiguously in our clients’ best interests.
You're the managing partner of Paul Weiss. What would you do?
12 comments:
What would I do? Stop engaging in racial discrimination might be a good start. And stop doing pro bono work for Jew hating organizations would be a good second step. Imagine if a law firm were refusing to hire Jews, blacks, and Hispanics (like they used to), the government would be congratulated for not doing business with them. How times have changed.
I wonder how this executive order will be applied against the the frivolous and abusive litigation practices of the Trump campaign following 60 bullshit lawsuits brought throughout the country at state and federal levels asserting arguments that had no basis in law or fact in 2020/2021?
Should Trump's security clearance be pulled as a sanction?
The irony that this Administration of all administrations has issued a memo seeking to crack down on frivolous litigation is richer than Elon Musk.
Anyone on Team Trump is a risk to National Security and cannot be trusted!
The basis for the executive order was that a former Paul, Weiss partner (Mark Pomerantz) left the firm and investigated president Trump while at the NY DA’s office, which the DA chose not to pursue. That’s it. It had no merit.
Because it had no merit, administration would have lost in Court. Instead of fighting, the firm caved and allowed the president to put out a statement that Karp acknowledged the former partner acted improperly thereby allowing a false narrative of impropriety by the firm. At some point, the value of truth and integrity is worth upholding over the value of maintaining $6 million annual partner profits.
Hard to blame him because he's white...
What I would do is show my clients that I’m not a coward.
I'm general counsel for the ETC Company. Trump's administration has said they will blackball any company who does business with your firm. I don't care how brave you are. We are out.
What you don’t get, is it the results obtained by these firms, particularly with respect to the government, are not based on the quality of their lawyer, it is based on the usefulness of their connections to the various agencies and people who work within them. Trump‘s order Basically would have screwed many of the firms clients and potentially put it out of business. From a business perspective, it is easy to understand why the firm did what they did. They could’ve chosen to be martyrs but instead did what outside council would’ve advised them to do.
@ 1:48 Set aside your gross misstatement regarding Israel "engaging in genocide" -- the adults in the room all know no such thing is occurring -- why are you so comfortable justifying mistreatment of American Jews based on opposition to Israeli government action?
We’re not McDonalds. We are sworn to protect and defend the constitution. Our forefathers and founders were rich and they put everything they had, including their lives, on the table to establish the principles embodied in the constitution. The moment we write a defense of money as the purpose of our calling we’re fucked. A soldier doesn’t have the luxury of only being a soldier during peacetime, if war is brought to your homeland you are duty bound to defend that homeland. This is one of the lowest moments in the history of a very noble profession.
Yes, it is a noble profession, but have you read some of the cases your noble sisters and brothers bring? The actions they take? The ethical rules they violate? Paul Weiss looking out for their clients' interests (and their business) really doesn't hit me as a low. What is a firm with 1000 + lawyers supposed to do? Fight the order and win, only to go out of business? A pyrrhic victory would be no victory at all. It is easy to say Paul Weiss should go down swinging from the bleachers.
Well ...any court ruling in favor of the firm, will be wiped out of existence....a Judge would have to bruise their knees honoring the FOTUS like the Queens of Hearts of the clown court in Fort Pierce.
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