2 days ago
Skadden Foundation leader resigns following Trump deal
June 4 (Reuters) - The executive director of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom's fellowship foundation said on Wednesday she resigned from her position, more than two months after the law firm agreed to provide President Donald Trump with $100 million in free legal services.
"I recently offered my resignation as executive director of the Skadden Foundation, rather than endorse actions that I believe will undermine its mission," Skadden Foundation executive director Kathleen Rubenstein said in a statement to Reuters.
Rubenstein in her statement did not specify what actions she was asked to endorse, and she declined to comment further. She announced her resignation in a post on LinkedIn.
The Skadden Foundation provides two-year fellowships to law school graduates who are interested in pursuing public interest law. These Skadden fellows "address unmet civil legal needs of people living in poverty in the U.S.," according to the group's website.
The group's website said it has funded more than 1,000 fellowships since launching in 1988.
"This moment in history calls on us to provide greater support for public interest lawyers and the clients they work alongside," Rubenstein said in her statement.
A spokesperson for Skadden did not immediately provide comment. Skadden executive partner Jeremy London has said that Skadden engaged proactively with Trump in the interests of clients, employees and the firm.
Rubenstein is the latest pro bono lawyer to resign from a major law firm that struck a deal with Trump to avoid punishing executive orders targeting their business. As part of those deals, Skadden and eight other law firms have pledged a total of $940 million in pro bono legal work to causes the White House supports.
Steven Banks, who led the pro bono practice at Paul Weiss, said in mid-April he was leaving the firm to turn his attention to representing the Coalition for the Homeless with the Legal Aid Society.
Skadden has been accused of limiting its lawyers' access to internal email lists to prevent them from discussing the firm's deal with Trump, a left-leaning advocacy group said in a complaint in April.
More than 80 Skadden alumni, including two people who left the firm after its agreement with Trump, sent a letter to London in April saying the deal undermined core democratic values.
Another lawyer who resigned from Skadden days before the agreement, Rachel Cohen, criticized the deals in testimony before an informal hearing of congressional Democrats.
