Latest news with #SimpsonThacher
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Pro Bono or Pro Nono? Law Firms Split on Fulfilling Deals With Trump
The nine law firms that promised President Trump they would perform about $1 billion in pro bono work on his favored causes have embraced broad interpretations of what they owe. Several firms that struck the unprecedented deals have shrugged them off as unenforceable and have taken on little to no additional unpaid work, according to people familiar with the matter. They are hoping Trump has moved on. Others are doing the math to classify the pro bono work they perform anyway to satisfy their commitments to the White House. Kirkland & Ellis, meanwhile, has helped the Trump administration in its trade deals, which appears to go beyond what was spelled out in the written agreement. Though the deals involve multibillion-dollar law firms, much of what's known about them is essentially written on the back of a digital napkin, contributing to the uneven delivery. Trump announced the terms in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform. Also complicating matters: Four law firms that refused to enter into agreements with Trump have won every court challenge they brought, adding to the belief that any deals announced on social media are unenforceable. Kirkland & Ellis has helped the Trump administration in its trade deals. Starting in late February, Trump issued a series of executive orders threatening law firms' access to federal buildings, security clearances and their clients' government contracts, citing their diversity practices and connections with his political enemies. Paul Weiss was the first law firm to strike a deal with the White House, committing to $40 million of pro bono work for causes such as assisting veterans and fighting antisemitism. A series of similar deals followed with firms including Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher and A&O Shearman. 'Law firms that have for years propelled one-sided justice by providing pro bono resources to those causes that make our nation more dangerous and less free have started serving their nation,' said White House spokesman Harrison Fields. 'All will benefit from this massive step to equality and justice.' Many firm leaders said they received limited follow-up from the White House after inking the deals. Behind the scenes, Trump's personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn, who helped negotiate the original deals, has continued communicating with firms on the administration's behalf. Epshteyn connected Kirkland & Ellis with the Commerce Department, which turned to the firm to help negotiate trade deals with Japan and South Korea that were both announced in July, according to people familiar with the matter. Within the firm, the work was seen as apolitical and relatively innocuous compared with the more politically partisan and edgy assignments some in the legal industry feared might be sought by Trump allies, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York Times earlier reported on Kirkland's role. 'The Commerce Department and Secretary Lutnick are working with some of America's top law firms and legal minds to cement the truly historic trade deals that President Trump negotiated for the American people,' an agency spokesman said. One leader at a firm with a White House agreement told associates that they wouldn't have to work on causes favored by Trump, including representing participants in the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol—and wouldn't face new obligations because of the deal, according to people familiar with those discussions. President Trump announcing a deal with an elite law firm in March. The commitments will be difficult for some law firms to complete before Trump leaves office. One of the smaller dealmaking firms, Cadwalader, typically performs $5 million to $7 million of pro bono work a year, according to people familiar with the matter. It committed to at least $100 million of pro bono work, meaning it could take two decades to fulfill the terms of the deal if it devoted all of its current pro bono budget to that effort. The co-chair of the firm's litigation group, Nick Gravante, floated that the firm could provide pro bono help to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, but a spokesman for the office said no one from the firm ever reached out. The cases the Trump administration has lost in court have weakened its position. And in another lawsuit, filed by the American Bar Association, Justice Department lawyers recently noted that the administration has taken no additional action against firms in four months and more sanctions 'may never happen.' 'I think the administration has completely lost the leverage it has over future firms,' said Gary DiBianco, a retired Skadden lawyer who recently launched a pro-bono litigation group. Still, the deals have had one clear effect on pro bono work: Dealmaking firms have been more reluctant to take on public-interest litigation challenging the administration. Nonprofit leaders say they have had to hire new in-house lawyers to compensate for the loss of work from big firms who helped them for free in prior years but now ignore their calls. Advocates for conservative causes had hoped the deals would give them new opportunities to secure legal support from the country's top lawyers. The firms that made agreements have been inundated with requests, according to lawyers familiar with the solicitations. Far-right groups have sought help. A landlord group asked firms to aid its efforts to curb rent control. A Republican donor sought help in a criminal case. Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi in April to create a mechanism to deliver private-sector pro bono assistance for law enforcement officers accused of misconduct. To date the white-shoe firms have yet to show up, said Devin Barrington-Ward, a spokesman for the National Police Accountability Project, which provides legal support for plaintiffs suing over police misconduct allegations. 'It's not happening,' agreed Harry Stern, a California lawyer who represents law-enforcement personnel facing legal liability He isn't convinced the big firms' expertise would translate into courtroom wins for the rank-and-file officers he typically represents, 'just like they wouldn't welcome my help in a mergers and acquisitions deal,' he said. The Oversight Project, a conservative watchdog group formerly affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, has been approaching law firms that made deals to ask for legal help but most never responded, the group's president, Mike Howell, said. A few firms took meetings but haven't yet taken on any proposed legal work. The Oversight Project plans to put out a list grading whether firms are complying with the settlements. 'We have a menu of cases spanning different types of work, and we gave them every possible reason to say yes,' Howell said. Write to Erin Mulvaney at C. Ryan Barber at and Jess Bravin at Pro Bono or Pro Nono? Law Firms Split on Fulfilling Deals With Trump
New York Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Richard Beattie, Who Helped Pioneer Private Equity Takeovers, Dies at 86
Richard Beattie, a mergers lawyer who helped pioneer private equity takeovers — work that was immortalized in the much-lauded book 'Barbarians at the Gate' — and who served in Washington and New York City government, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. His daughter Lisa Beattie Frelinghuysen said the cause was cancer. Over nearly six decades at the white-shoe New York firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the soft-spoken Mr. Beattie — Dick, as he was widely known — became one of Wall Street's most-sought corporate advisers. He helped put together AOL's $165 billion takeover of Time Warner in 2001 and JPMorgan Chase's $58 billion acquisition of Bank One in 2004, and advised the board of the insurer American International Group on its $85 billion federal bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. He went on to serve as Simpson Thacher's chairman from 1991 to 2004 and as senior chairman until his death. But his earliest and most enduring claim to fame was in the late 1960s, when he presciently recognized that private equity firms — corporate takeover artists who used debt to buy companies — would become a major force on Wall Street. As a young associate, Mr. Beattie was introduced to Henry R. Kravis, who would go on to be one of the top names in leveraged buyouts. Mr. Beattie became Mr. Kravis's go-to counsel on ever-larger takeovers, culminating in the $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco, completed in 1989, that was chronicled by the journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar in the book 'Barbarians at the Gate,' published that year. For a decade, the transaction held the record as the biggest leveraged buyout. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wall Street Journal
08-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Richard ‘Dick' Beattie, Star Lawyer in Famed Private-Equity Deals, Dies at 86
Behind every private-equity buyout is a cadre of lawyers. Behind some of the biggest buyouts was Dick Beattie. Beattie, who ended his career as senior chairman of law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, was among the first attorneys to recognize private equity's potential. He rode the industry's explosive growth, becoming one of the country's top mergers-and-acquisitions lawyers and shaping Simpson Thacher into a private-equity powerhouse.
Economic Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Microsoft swaps law firms in shareholder case, hiring Trump target
Microsoft is switching the law firm representing it in a shareholder case, replacing one that settled with the Trump administration to avoid a punishing executive order with one that is fighting the White House. Court documents showed Microsoft has hired Jenner & Block to replace Simpson Thacher in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit over its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. The filings did not give a reason. Microsoft, without elaborating, said in a statement to Reuters that Simpson Thacher continues to represent it on other matters. Companies can have many reasons for switching legal teams, including to save money or avoid attorney-client conflicts. Simpson Thacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jenner & Block, which has done prior work for Microsoft, declined to comment. Jenner and three other firms are suing President Donald Trump's administration over his executive orders that stripped their security clearances, restricted their access to government buildings and sought to cancel federal contracts held by their clients. Wall Street firm Simpson Thacher is among nine firms that have collectively pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to the White House since Trump launched his pressure campaign on firms that he accused of "weaponizing" the legal system against him. The New York Times first reported Microsoft's change in counsel. Jenner's lawsuit against the Trump administration called the executive order an "unconstitutional abuse of power" that sought to drive away its clients. It said the order was retribution for its past employment of a prosecutor involved in the U.S. special counsel probe into Russian contacts with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. A former top lawyer at Microsoft and dozens of other current and former general counsels at major U.S. companies said in an April 11 court brief backing Jenner and other firms that Trump's orders force companies "to choose counsel to avoid the President's retribution rather than based on independent business judgment, experience, skill, or expertise." Simpson Thacher represented Microsoft in its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, maker of the popular video game "Call of Duty." The deal, announced in 2022, was the largest ever in the gaming industry. The lawsuit in Delaware claimed Activision improperly approved a draft merger agreement and not the final version. Microsoft in 2024 asked a judge to validate the acquisition and deny a $15 million fee request from lawyers who represented an Activision shareholder.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft swaps law firms in shareholder case, hiring Trump adversary
By Mike Scarcella and Tom Hals Microsoft is switching the law firm representing it in a shareholder case from one that has settled with the Trump administration to one that is fighting it. Court documents showed Microsoft has hired Jenner & Block to replace Simpson Thacher in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit over its $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard . The filings did not give a reason. Microsoft, without elaborating, said in a statement to Reuters that Simpson Thacher continues to represent it on other matters. Representatives for the firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Jenner and three other firms are suing President Donald Trump's administration over his executive orders that stripped their security clearances, restricted their access to government buildings and sought to cancel federal contracts held by their clients. Wall Street firm Simpson Thacher is among nine firms that have collectively pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to the White House since Trump launched his pressure campaign on firms that he accused of "weaponizing" the legal system against him. Companies can have many reasons for switching legal teams, including to save money or avoid attorney-client conflicts. Jenner has represented Microsoft in other cases, court filings show. The New York Times first reported Microsoft's change in counsel. Jenner's lawsuit against the Trump administration called the executive order an "unconstitutional abuse of power" that sought to drive away its clients. It said the order was retribution for its past employment of a prosecutor involved in the U.S. special counsel probe into Russian contacts with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. A former top lawyer at Microsoft and dozens of other current and former general counsels at major U.S. companies said in a court brief backing Jenner and other firms that Trump's orders force companies "to choose counsel to avoid the President's retribution rather than based on independent business judgment, experience, skill, or expertise." Simpson Thacher represented Microsoft in its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, maker of the popular video game "Call of Duty." The deal, announced in 2022, was the largest-ever in the gaming industry. The lawsuit in Delaware claimed Activision improperly approved a draft merger agreement and not the final version. Microsoft in 2024 asked a judge to validate the acquisition and deny a $15 million fee request from lawyers who represented an Activision shareholder.
