Some of you may have heard about the law firm Paul Weiss caving to the Trump Administration. If you haven’t that’s ok too. There’s a lot right now. But we thought it was important to break down what happened, what it means, why it’s super important and scary, and what our firm thinks.
There is a BIG law firm called Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. We’re talking about a firm with offices all over the world, $2.63 Billion in revenue last year. They represent a lot of big corporations but they do have a pretty strong history of standing for civil rights. Their current chairman had stated that lawyers have an obligation to defend the rule of law, and had previously advocated for democratic processes and upholding constitutional rights, and was an early firm to promote diversity.
In recent weeks President Trump began signing Executive Orders against law firms that have attorneys who represented cases both against him and/or his prior administration (whether before or after joining the firm). Essentially, the orders revoked law firm government security credentials and suggested that clients of the firm could lose their government contracts. These firms included Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie in addition to Paul Weiss. TLDR: he said if you went after me I’m using my executive power to try to hurt your business and retaliate against you. Scary. Stuff.
Perkins Coie filed suit challenging the order and a judge barred enforcement of the order against them on grounds it is likely illegal. Everyone (lots of us lawyers especially) hoped Paul Weiss would use its buckets of money and influence and size to also challenge the order against them and stand up to this abuse of power and litigate. Something they had encouraged the other firms and attorneys to do. Spoiler Alert: they did not.
In fact, what the chairman of Paul Weiss did was backchannel his way to a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office where they came to a “deal” in which the Executive Order would be withdrawn and Paul Weiss agreed to do $40 million worth of pro bono work for causes favored by the White House and issue a statement that they will take clients regardless of political party. This came as a huge shock—a firm with that history and resources and in such crucial times essentially gave in to a retaliatory and targeted act of government seeking to control and punish political opposition and valid use of our justice system.
Hannah Arendt, a prominent 20th century scholar on politics and facism, has defined facism as “a powerful national state ‘monopolising’ the sovereignty of the individual.” This is absolutely that. A President, using his office to punish, or control, individuals and businesses through the use of executive power. And Paul Weiss making a deal reiterates that power. If you speak out, or work, against this administration you and your personhood, vocation, or livelihood will be punished if you do not bow. This is not hyperbole. This literally happened.
The first law of fighting authoritarianism: don’t voluntarily surrender. The attorneys at our firm, along with many many lawyers around the country (and the American Bar Association for that matter) all find this type of action, and response, appalling and alarming. This is textbook fascism. This is how the rule of law is broken. This is how the administration gets around the courts trying to enforce the legal standards our Country has established and entrusted for nearly 250 years. As lawyers, we took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. We are a small firm, our clients are local, and our impact is not that of Paul Weiss, but our values and our voices matter. And ours stand strongly on the side of democratic values, our principles as attorneys, the First Amendment, the right to express our firm’s strong belief in equality, LGBTQ+ rights, DEI initiatives, and the freedom of our business to say resoundingly F**k Facism and we will accept the fact we may lose money or business because of it.
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