Latest news with #BradKarp
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside the fallout at Paul, Weiss after the firm's deal with Trump
Three months ago, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison was under attack. The global law firm had just become the target of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing the firm and its clients to be cut off from government contracts, and for firm lawyers to lose their security clearances and be restricted from entering government buildings or dealing with federal employees. Paul, Weiss wasn't the first firm to be the focus of such an executive order, but it would go on to be the first to negotiate a deal with the White House in order to get it lifted. At the time, the firm's leader Brad Karp said he was trying to save his team from an 'existential crisis.' Since then, the firm has endured. But the decision to strike a deal has led to high-profile departures among partners and drawn condemnation from Democrats and others in the legal community. After Karp made a deal with Trump, at least 10 partners in the litigation department have resigned from the firm, including several with close ties to Democrats. A group of the departing partners have joined together to start their own firm where they will continue to represent tech giants like Meta and Google, and another has jumped ship to one of the four firms that chose to fight the administration in court. While the firms that have fought Trump have been vindicated in multiple swift rulings, Paul, Weiss has been dealing with fallout in the aftermath of the deal, according to three former attorneys and five others with knowledge of the firm granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal dynamics. 'They made a calculated decision,' said Elizabeth Grossman, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause Illinois and a former Paul, Weiss associate who helped organize alumni opposition to the deal. 'They were thinking about their bottom line… I think what we've seen is that they made the wrong decision.' Founded 150 years ago in New York, Paul, Weiss is now one of the largest and most profitable firms in the world, with more than 1,000 lawyers in offices across North America, Europe and Asia and an annual revenue of $2.6 billion. The firm touts its pro-bono work and its lawyers were frequently involved in cases challenging controversial policies during the first Trump administration. The firm's commitment to 'not adopt, use or pursue any DEI policies' and provide the equivalent of $40 million in free legal work to 'support the administration's initiatives' would become the framework used by eight other law firms to strike similar deals committing a total of nearly $1 billion in pro bono work to causes favored by the president. Being the first firm to fold meant Paul, Weiss secured a better deal than those who came later, but it also turned the firm into a lightning rod for anger at Big Law's failure to stand up to Trump. Karp and a spokesperson for Paul, Weiss declined to comment. The first major personnel blow for Paul, Weiss came at the end of May, when co-chair of the litigation department, Karen Dunn, announced that she and three of her colleagues would be leaving to start a new litigation boutique firm. Dunn has had close ties to Democrats for years and previously worked as an associate White House counsel under former President Barack Obama. She also helped former Vice President Kamala Harris prepare for her 2024 general election debate with Trump. Leaving with Dunn was Jeannie Rhee, who previously represented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a lawsuit dealing with her use of a private email server and worked under special counsel Robert Mueller during his investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. During the week between Trump's order targeting Paul, Weiss and the announcement of the deal, the firm's management committee, including Dunn and Rhee, prepared to challenge the order in court, according to three of the people with knowledge of the firm. The group, led by chair of the firm's Supreme Court practice, Kannon Shanmugam, worked on a motion asking a judge to immediately halt enforcement of the order while litigation played out, but the effort was tabled in favor of making a deal, one of the people said. A second one said that in her capacity as a member of the management committee, Dunn was involved in the conversations about making a deal with the White House. That person said Karp consulted the firm's partnership in deciding whether to make a deal, and the 'vast majority' of the more than 200 partners were in favor of it at the time. Dunn began telling lawyers inside and outside the firm of her plans to leave in the days and weeks following the deal, according to one of the people. Dunn and Rhee declined to comment. Shanmugam did not respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, five additional partners and at least eight associates, the majority of whom worked with Dunn at her previous firm and moved to Paul, Weiss around the same time as she did, have left Paul, Weiss to join Dunn and her colleagues at the fledgling firm Dunn Isaacson Rhee. Dunn and her partners have filed notices in multiple ongoing cases indicating they will continue representing big tech clients they were already representing at Paul, Weiss. 'Paul, Weiss used to be the gold standard for litigation,' said Bryson Malcolm, founder of legal recruiting firm Mosaic Search Partners. 'I think that reputation is waning.' Earlier this month, Paul, Weiss lost another recognizable name when the former chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Damian Williams, decamped to Jenner & Block, a much smaller firm by annual revenue. That firm had also been targeted by an executive order but successfully fought the administration in court instead of making a deal — something Williams seemed to allude to in the announcement of his move. 'I've seen firsthand how this firm expertly tackles the toughest cases and lives its values,' Williams said in a press release. 'I'm excited to join a team with an extraordinary depth of legal talent that doesn't shy away from hard fights — and delivers results that matter.' Williams declined to comment. Paul, Weiss has also lost one of its two former Obama Cabinet secretaries to retirement since the deal. Former Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson retired last month to take a position as co-chair of Columbia University's board of trustees. Meanwhile, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch remains at the firm. Johnson and Lynch did not respond to requests for comment. Trump's stated reasons for initially targeting the firm were the hiring of Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney's office who previously investigated Trump's hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, Rhee's work on a civil lawsuit against individuals involved with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and an allegation that the firm was engaging in racially discriminatory hiring practices. (In a firm-wide email following the deal, Karp wrote, '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.') The threat of future investigation hangs over all the firms that struck deals. Sixteen House Democrats sent letters to Paul, Weiss and the eight other deal-making firms in April, seeking details of the agreements and suggesting that they may violate state and federal criminal laws against bribery. 'We would never do anything to compromise our ability to advocate zealously on behalf of our clients, and we certainly reject any suggestion that any element of the agreement is contrary to law,' Karp wrote in a response letter obtained by POLITICO. Meanwhile, all the firms that have fought Trump's orders have so far won in court. Four federal judges have struck down Trump's executive orders aimed at firms Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey as unconstitutional. The Justice Department has not taken steps to appeal those rulings and the window of time for them to do so will soon close. Despite those legal victories, some observers caution that it may be too soon to tell if the threat to firms that fought back has truly passed. Trump's orders are no longer in effect, but federal agencies can still come up with alternative reasons to steer contracts away from disfavored firms and their clients. And companies seeking government approval for mergers may prefer to use Paul, Weiss or another deal-making firm to represent them in that process over one that fought that administration. 'If it's being done without saying that it's being done, it's super hard for courts to police,' said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who studies law and public policy. There may be more departures to come for Paul, Weiss. The nature of profit distribution at large firms gives partners an incentive to stay through the end of the fiscal year and the process of moving firms for partners is more lengthy and complicated than simply finding a new job willing to hire them. 'It's a very financially unattractive time to leave and you need several months to make the move anyway,' said a partner at a separate firm granted anonymity to speak candidly about the industry. And while top talent walks out the door, it may prove harder for Paul, Weiss to attract the next generation of lawyers. 'Students are plugged in in a way that they've never been before and they're tracking all this,' Malcolm said. 'I don't really see a situation where a student would choose Paul, Weiss over any of its peers that didn't have a similar fallout. Even if you're just thinking pragmatically and you're not really tied to the morality of it all, it's just very clear Paul, Weiss is not a safe option compared to the others.' According to numbers obtained by POLITICO, Paul, Weiss' acceptance rates for this year at their major offices including New York and Washington are in line with their typical acceptance rates over the past five years. 'Ultimately we're a talent business,' said the partner at the separate firm. 'It may not be something you feel now, but it could be something you feel three or four years from now.'
Bloomberg
10-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Paul Weiss Strategy Tested as Partners Exit Post-Trump Deal
Paul Weiss leader Brad Karp spent more than a decade building his firm's deals practice to an elite level matching its litigation work. A deal he struck with President Donald Trump threatens the balance between the two. The Wall Street firm lost a string of litigation partners following the March 20 deal with Trump to provide $40 million in free legal services. The move got Paul Weiss out from under an executive order that Karp said threatened the firm's survival.
Politico
28-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
Big Law's big mistake
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. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at akhardori@ 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. Parting Image Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
CBS News
21-03-2025
- Business
- CBS News
White House rescinds executive order targeting law firm Paul, Weiss after $40 million pledge
Washington — President Trump on Thursday rescinded an executive order targeting a prominent international law firm after it pledged to review its hiring practices and to provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services to support certain White House initiatives. The move follows a meeting between Mr. Trump and Brad Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton, over the White House order issued last week. The order, the latest in a series of similar actions targeting law firms whose lawyers have provided legal work that Mr. Trump disagrees with, threatened to suspend active security clearances of attorneys at Paul, Weiss and to terminate any federal contracts the firm has. It singled out the work of Mark Pomerantz , who previously worked at the firm and who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office into Mr. Trump's finances before Mr. Trump became president. To avoid those consequences, the White House said Paul, Weiss had agreed to "take on a wide range of pro bono matters that represent the full spectrum of political viewpoints of our society," to disavow the use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in its hiring and promotion decisions and to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal services to support Trump administration policies on issues including assistance for veterans and countering anti-Semitism. In a statement issued by the White House, Karp said: "We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss. We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration." The firm becomes the latest corporate target to make concessions to the president to avoid his ire. Meta and ABC made settlement payments to Mr. Trump's future presidential library to end lawsuits filed by Mr. Trump. Other tech and financial firms have publicly rolled back DEI programs in line with Mr. Trump's policy interests. Earlier executive orders have targeted the law firms of Perkins Coie, which last week sued in federal court in Washington, and Covington & Burling.
