Big Law's big mistake

Politico

28-05-2025

TIRED OF WINNING — Another law firm — the third so far — scored a resounding legal victory this week against the Trump administration. They were successful because they decided not to capitulate and instead take him to court.
Earlier this year, Trump issued an unprecedented series of executive orders that imposed a variety of sanctions — including barring lawyers from the firms from entering federal property — on a number of large law firms.
After Trump began his effort, a sharp split among firms emerged. The law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which was on the receiving end of one of those orders, agreed to provide $40 million worth of pro bono legal services for issues supported by the White House in exchange for Trump rescinding his order and lifting the sanctions against the firm and its lawyers. Eight more firms followed suit, ultimately pledging nearly a billion dollars' worth of similar pro bono services in support of administration causes.
Four law firms, however, refused to buckle. They filed lawsuits challenging their respective orders — targeting the orders on First Amendment grounds, among others.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in D.C. struck down the executive order against WilmerHale, one of the four prominent firms to fight back. The firm joins two others — Jenner & Block and Perkins Coie — that also successfully pushed back in court. (It is not yet clear whether the Justice Department will appeal.) Meanwhile, a fourth firm, Susman Godfrey, obtained a preliminary victory; a final decision remains outstanding, though the firm's odds are looking better by the day.
These developments suggest that we may be seeing a shift in the political and legal dynamics around these deals.
When Paul, Weiss entered into the first deal, the firm's chairman, Brad Karp, told lawyers in the firm that he had no choice because the order posed an 'existential' threat to the firm and 'could easily have destroyed' it. This assertion was highly questionable even at the time, but the assessment looks even worse in hindsight. All indications are that WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey still very much exist — with lawyers, clients, offices and all the rest. (Disclosure: Your correspondent this evening worked at Paul, Weiss years ago.)
WilmerHale's victory came on the heels of the announcement from four Paul, Weiss partners on Friday that they were leaving the firm to start their own venture. They include Karen Dunn, a prominent litigator and long-time fixture in Democratic circles who oversaw Kamala Harris's debate prep last year; Jeannie Rhee, a former federal prosecutor who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia investigation; and William Isaacson, another prominent trial lawyer.
Exactly why they left is not clear. According to reporting from The New York Times, Dunn supported the decision to strike a deal with Trump and in fact helped rally support among the partnership. She apparently shares the blame for a deal that may have run afoul of the law in multiple serious ways and that paved the way for others to cave.
Since then, however, Paul, Weiss has become a pariah of sorts in the eyes of the Democratic Party — a symbol of elite capitulation in the age of Trump 2.0.
It's a remarkable fall from grace both for the firm as an institution, once seen as a largely reliable supporter of Democrats and home to quite a few former Democratic administration lawyers, and for Karp personally, a major fundraiser for the party who once styled himself as a power broker of sorts at the intersection of Manhattan's law and finance worlds.
Seen against that backdrop, Dunn's departure may partly reflect the atmosphere among Democrats in Washington these days. Dunn was once widely seen within Paul, Weiss as a potential successor to Karp as the head of the firm, so her decision to leave was surprising — the job is worth tens of millions of dollars a year — and is also likely to put a small dent in the firm's revenue.
But for a lawyer who wants to remain a political player in Democratic circles, the Paul, Weiss brand — along with the brands of the other firms that surrendered to Trump — may no longer be helpful.
In fact, it may be a hindrance to professional advancement within the party and to the sorts of jobs — like White House counsel or a senior position in the Justice Department — that many of the most prominent Democratic lawyers aspire to hold.
The ongoing fallout for the settling firms now appears to present a cautionary tale: They may have succeeded in taking the easy way out and keeping their very profitable businesses humming along, but memories in Washington are long. Even early into his second term, the firms that are fighting Trump in court are winning.
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What'd I Miss?
— Trump gives Putin 2 weeks for action on Ukraine as relationship frays: Donald Trump says American efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine to peace are going 'fine,' but appears cognizant that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be only pretending to engage in good faith. 'We'll find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not and if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently but it will take about a week and a half to two weeks,' the U.S. president said today in response to reporters' questions at the White House. 'They seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed I can't tell you. Nobody can.'
— Trump weighs pardons of people convicted for Whitmer's 2020 kidnapping plot: President Donald Trump said today that he is considering pardons for the people involved in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Trump insinuated that the trial had not been handled correctly by the legal system while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, describing it as potentially being a 'railroad job.' The kidnapping plot against the Michigan Democrat rattled the final weeks of the 2020 election and marked an incident of anti-government extremism that prosecutors said was intended to ignite a civil war. The leaders, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to abduct the Democratic governor from her vacation home.
— Trump slams a new Wall Street acronym referring to his reversals on tariffs: Wall Street has a new shorthand about President Donald Trump — and he's not happy about it. Traders have reportedly come up with the acronym TACO, which stands for 'Trump always chickens out,' to describe the tumultuous trade environment created by the president's habit of threatening to impose tariffs on countries, and then back off at the last moment. He bristled when asked about it today in an Oval Office press conference. 'Don't ever say what you say, that's a nasty question,' Trump told a journalist who asked for his response to the acronym. 'To me that's the nastiest question.' Trump rejected the idea that his reversals on tariffs amounted to him backing down, saying that usually receives a different critique.
— Rubio targets foreign nationals who he alleges police Americans' social media posts: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today a new visa restriction policy targeting foreign officials who he says are complicit in censoring what Americans say online. 'For too long, Americans have been fined, harassed, and even charged by foreign authorities for exercising their free speech rights,' Rubio wrote on X. 'Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans. Free speech is essential to the American way of life — a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.'
AROUND THE WORLD
CHINA HACK — The Czech government today condemned China for carrying out a cyberattack against its foreign ministry exposing thousands of unclassified emails. Czechia said that the Chinese state-sponsored group Advanced Persistent Threat 31 (APT31) targeted the foreign ministry from 2022 — the year the country held the rotating EU presidency — and was able to read unclassified emails sent between embassies and EU institutions.
The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said he would summon the Chinese ambassador immediately to explain the findings and tell him this would damage the countries' bilateral relations.
'With today's move, we have exposed China, which has long been working to undermine our resilience and democracy,' Lipavský said. 'Through cyberattacks, information manipulation, and propaganda, it interferes in our society — and we must defend ourselves against that.'
It is the first time the Czech government has attributed a national cyberattack to a state-backed actor.
BLACK SEA STRATEGY — The EU unveiled a new Black Sea strategy today that will allow the region to better transport heavy military gear as the Russian threat looms over Eastern Europe. 'Security in the Black Sea is vital also to European security,' EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said at a press conference, adding that it is currently being undermined by the Kremlin's all-out war in Ukraine and hybrid attacks on maritime infrastructure.
The strategy is also a response to 'geopolitical challenges' in a world where 'dependencies are being weaponized,' said Marta Kos, commissioner for EU enlargement. The Black Sea is a bridge to the South Caucasus and Central Asia, and a vital artery for energy and food trade, she said.
The Black Sea region has been destabilized by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as the large-scale use of mines and military actions hindered the flow of goods. Separately, Eastern European countries fear further aggression from Moscow beyond Ukraine, and want to ramp up their defensive capabilities.
Nightly Number
RADAR SWEEP
LAST OF ITS KIND — In Wheeling, West Virginia, at the Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino & Racetrack, greyhounds are still racing. It's an outdated practice — so much so that there are only two racetracks of its kind left in the country, and the number of races the track puts on have dropped off significantly. It's also one that animal rights activists have consistently railed against. But, like many other rickety old institutions, it still has a vibrant culture that doesn't want to let go of their hobby just yet. The unassuming, rundown track is the scene for a story about American culture and what it means to be at the end of something. Michelle Orange writes for Oxford American.
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