The first obligation of the firm is not to its clients or its employees. It is to the rule and profession of law. Sometimes there are no good choices, so the best one is the one that keeps your integrity intact. Karp claims that the firm will keep its values. He says PaulWeiss hoped other firms would come to PW's defense. Is the firm going to condemn the White House Memo that came out yesterday, ordering prosecution of opposing lawyers? If not, we will know PaulWeiss doesn't have the values it claims. We will also know Trump has only to ratchet up his demands the next time he doesn't like what PaulWeiss does. Who would want to be in or hire such a cowardly, submissive firm?
For years there were voices warning Dems and legal firms going after President Trump that the pendulum may swing back. Why are some people surprised? Perhaps this will be a lesson in using discernment when attacking a political opponent. Can you believe it's only been just over 60 days. since President Trump took over. Your comment seems to indicate that you completely misunderstood what's happening. The fun has just begun. Just wait when SCOTUS puts all these district judges in their places.
Lawyers and judges are under attack. Sadly, the judicial branch is all that is left to check the executive, Congress has abdicated its role in our system of checks and balances. If lawyers do not step up to defend each other and to protect the judges who are trying to do their legitimate jobs, who are we as a country? Apparently Paul Weiss has found a way in this climate to continue doing business as usual. Except, hello you absolute imbeciles, anyone can see that it is not business as usual for our system of government
I hope David digs into and reports further on these allegations that certain other firms refused to support Paul Weiss and tried to poach its lawyers instead.
I am skeptical of Karp’s indignation about lateral recruiting. And I’ve seen plenty of posts on LinkedIn and elsewhere not-so-subtly suggesting that Paul Weiss lawyers should apply for openings at firms that have not capitulated to the Trump Administration, such as Perkins Coie…
Honestly? I don't believe a word out of Karp's mouth (or off his keyboard). I suspect he's actively misrepresenting the timing.
Certainly many posted how anyone with integrity at PW should flee the festering pile, and I understand recruiters were getting lots of calls, and that yes headhunters were making calls of their own. But that was after the capitulation.
I also don't believe that PW tried to "rally support" for anyone else. Frankly, I'd not be shocked if the rule of "every accusation is a confession" applies here and PW was putting out feelers to PC and Covington clients.
It's always easier for the powerful to protect their position and to pay off a powerful person who's threatening you. Paul Weiss has just reinforced those points for the world.
Paul Weiss was not the first law firm to be attacked by the Trump administration. Did PW leap to the defense of those earlier victims? If not, then how can they be disappointed that they were, in turn, abandoned?
@Sibyl, below, is exactly right: Our legal system has been shattered. Any notion of business as usual is just a fairy tale. PW is trying to stay afloat as the riptide sweeps them out to sea.
As Jamelle Bouie and numerous other commentators have pointed out, the death-blow was the ruling, last July in Trump v. United States. The SCOTUS has now created a problem that they cannot solve. Indeed, as I have pointed out before, a case in which they **could** overrule their earlier decision cannot ever come before them -- it will immediately be dismissed in lower courts because of their ruling in Trump v. United States.
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" (William Butler Yeats)
I can empathize with the plight here, where there are no good options against an (at least) authoritarian-lite administration that really just doesn't care about principle (other than its own interest simpliciter, and notably distinct from any concern for the Constitution or the good of the country or the rule of law). And I perhaps empathize more after reading the letter and seeing plausible claims that client flight would destroy them even if they won.
(I worked for Mozilla back in 2014 when the whole Brendan Eich foofaraw, which was almost entirely outside-driven, happened. There were not good options there, either -- short of preemptively dealing with it at time of appointment by publicly establishing a line. End of day, once you get drawn into something like this, you inevitably lose something no matter what you do.)
At the same time, the only way this travesty stops is for people (and, bigger picture, nations) to step up. Is it just going to be small nobodies, Cassidy Hutchinsons, with relatively little to lose, who do it? Extraordinary damage will be done while we wait for someone like that to step up.
The power of the presidency is absolutely out of control for any of this to happen. Dems, when you get back in power (or hey, a GOP that comes to its senses -- I can dream, right? William James and all, will to believe? it's all I've got now...), you absolutely need to rein in the power of the president substantially. I don't care how many of you think it shouldn't be reined in, because you're concerned about climate change and think the only way anything happens on that front is through an energetic presidency. (I read specific reporting saying that that actually did happen with respect to trimming presidential power surrounding "emergencies", that I can't find now. I think maybe Jonathan Adler tweeted or retweeted it, but my searches just now came up dry, so I can't provide an exact source now.) Get over yourselves. We have a president who has deliberately abetted mass murder of Ukrainians, who pardons his own violent foot soldiers attempting (however incompetently and ineffectually) a coup, who absolutely does not care what anyone thinks if he very publicly implements an enemies list...and all his own fully-corrupted party will do is yawn and shrug. If we survive the next four years -- we probably will, but in what state will we be after it? surrounded by "enemies" on every front because we destroyed every friendship we had? -- you need to put down everything else and deal with major civic hygiene issues before anything else.
Yeah they’re definitely going to keep doing race-conscious hiring; they’re just not going to call it “DEI” any more.
As you predicted, David, PW isn’t going to do anything differently than they would have already done. They just had to be perceived as bending the knee. Which may hurt them a bit in the long run, but Karp is probably right that it would have hurt a lot more in the short run if they didn’t.
But how much they themselves get hurt is not the marker of integrity essential in the legal profession. They have sacrificed their integrity and it will stick to them for far longer than the Trump administration.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Mr. Karp’s email describes the terms of the deal in his words, with an obvious intent to minimize consternation and stress of the firm’s staff. But the words of the agreement are the best evidence of what the Administration has and will get from the firm. Mr. Karp says here that the firm has agreed to donate $40 million of work in three named areas of interest to the Administration. But the agreement says the firm will take on projects in those areas “and other mutually agreed projects.” What are those projects, Mr. Karp? Are they now known, or is this something the Administration can hold over your head for the next four years?
Well, now we have a hint as to the answers to my questions. Today, April 8, President Trump told coal workers “we’re gonna use some of those firms to work with you on your leasing,” and with regard to legal support for his tariffs, the President stated “we’re gonna have to use those great firms, I think, to help us with that . . . and we’re getting them for the right price.” Any chance you’ll revisit your assessment of the terms of the Paul Weiss deal, Mr. Lat (“this doesn’t sound like it will require Paul Weiss to do much that it wasn’t already doing”)?
Was it business as usual for Paul, Weiss to provide pro bono support to Mark Pomerantz in his efforts to find a crime to charge Trump, as Pomerantz himself wrote about?
He wrote and published a book, The People vs.Donald Trump: An Inside Account. Pomerantz was ultimately frustrated that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute, but the New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the cause (as opposed to the case). And the state’s Attorney General Letitia James was in on it as well.
Karp and his firm are living in a dream world. Trump is an alpha predator and the firm's capitulation to his demands will only encourage Trump to strike the firm again.
Seems to me the firm is a dead man walking. If it crosses Trump again (and only Trump will know when he feels "crossed") and Trump issues another executive order say barring firm attorneys from federal courthouses, clients of the firm will flee.
Rolling over and accepting Trump's demands will also have adverse effects. No Democratic aligned non-profit or business will hire the firm. The firm cannot sue Trump or any of the agencies of the federal government. What client would hire the firm to negotiate a contract with the federal government knowing that Trump effectively controls the firm? Even in matters not involving Trump or the federal government, clients may be wary in hiring the firm since the potential client now understands that the firm is easily compromised and is controlled by Trump.
Also, Karp demonstrated his ineptitude by sending his long email trying to justify his decision. He should have known that the email will be immediately leaked to the media. He should have called a meeting of the attorneys and staff and personally explained to them his decision after first making sure all cell phones were secured. A personal meeting would have allowed attorneys who disagreed with the decision to rate and rave in private and maybe exhaust some of their venom.
The first obligation of the firm is not to its clients or its employees. It is to the rule and profession of law. Sometimes there are no good choices, so the best one is the one that keeps your integrity intact. Karp claims that the firm will keep its values. He says PaulWeiss hoped other firms would come to PW's defense. Is the firm going to condemn the White House Memo that came out yesterday, ordering prosecution of opposing lawyers? If not, we will know PaulWeiss doesn't have the values it claims. We will also know Trump has only to ratchet up his demands the next time he doesn't like what PaulWeiss does. Who would want to be in or hire such a cowardly, submissive firm?
What did you think of the statement by The Elias Law Group in response to the March 22nd memo?
https://elias.law/newsroom/press-releases/statement-from-elias-law-group-chair-marc-elias
Elias is the shadiest lawyer and biggest crook in DC and that's not easy.
And he still managed a better response than Paul, Weiss.
For years there were voices warning Dems and legal firms going after President Trump that the pendulum may swing back. Why are some people surprised? Perhaps this will be a lesson in using discernment when attacking a political opponent. Can you believe it's only been just over 60 days. since President Trump took over. Your comment seems to indicate that you completely misunderstood what's happening. The fun has just begun. Just wait when SCOTUS puts all these district judges in their places.
Hey guys, I found the fascist!
Lawyers and judges are under attack. Sadly, the judicial branch is all that is left to check the executive, Congress has abdicated its role in our system of checks and balances. If lawyers do not step up to defend each other and to protect the judges who are trying to do their legitimate jobs, who are we as a country? Apparently Paul Weiss has found a way in this climate to continue doing business as usual. Except, hello you absolute imbeciles, anyone can see that it is not business as usual for our system of government
Apologies for intemperate language. Retired lawyer, face to face with both my own mortality and that of our country.
I hope David digs into and reports further on these allegations that certain other firms refused to support Paul Weiss and tried to poach its lawyers instead.
I am skeptical of Karp’s indignation about lateral recruiting. And I’ve seen plenty of posts on LinkedIn and elsewhere not-so-subtly suggesting that Paul Weiss lawyers should apply for openings at firms that have not capitulated to the Trump Administration, such as Perkins Coie…
They didn't start trying to poach until after PW rolled over, it seems. Certainly no one is going after Perkins Coie attorneys.
That’s not how I read this email, but the timeline is unclear. Another reason I hope David talks to his sources and reports back with more details.
Honestly? I don't believe a word out of Karp's mouth (or off his keyboard). I suspect he's actively misrepresenting the timing.
Certainly many posted how anyone with integrity at PW should flee the festering pile, and I understand recruiters were getting lots of calls, and that yes headhunters were making calls of their own. But that was after the capitulation.
I also don't believe that PW tried to "rally support" for anyone else. Frankly, I'd not be shocked if the rule of "every accusation is a confession" applies here and PW was putting out feelers to PC and Covington clients.
It's always easier for the powerful to protect their position and to pay off a powerful person who's threatening you. Paul Weiss has just reinforced those points for the world.
Paul Weiss was not the first law firm to be attacked by the Trump administration. Did PW leap to the defense of those earlier victims? If not, then how can they be disappointed that they were, in turn, abandoned?
@Sibyl, below, is exactly right: Our legal system has been shattered. Any notion of business as usual is just a fairy tale. PW is trying to stay afloat as the riptide sweeps them out to sea.
As Jamelle Bouie and numerous other commentators have pointed out, the death-blow was the ruling, last July in Trump v. United States. The SCOTUS has now created a problem that they cannot solve. Indeed, as I have pointed out before, a case in which they **could** overrule their earlier decision cannot ever come before them -- it will immediately be dismissed in lower courts because of their ruling in Trump v. United States.
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" (William Butler Yeats)
“we will continue to uphold the proud traditions that have defined Paul, Weiss for the last 150 years”
Hmmm.
The tradition of "please sir, may I have another"
In two letters, B.S.
"Second, the resolution we reached with the Administration will have no effect on our work and our shared culture and values."
That culture being one of capitulation, and values of cowardice and avarice.
I hope Karp has the exact sort of days he deserves to have.
I can empathize with the plight here, where there are no good options against an (at least) authoritarian-lite administration that really just doesn't care about principle (other than its own interest simpliciter, and notably distinct from any concern for the Constitution or the good of the country or the rule of law). And I perhaps empathize more after reading the letter and seeing plausible claims that client flight would destroy them even if they won.
(I worked for Mozilla back in 2014 when the whole Brendan Eich foofaraw, which was almost entirely outside-driven, happened. There were not good options there, either -- short of preemptively dealing with it at time of appointment by publicly establishing a line. End of day, once you get drawn into something like this, you inevitably lose something no matter what you do.)
At the same time, the only way this travesty stops is for people (and, bigger picture, nations) to step up. Is it just going to be small nobodies, Cassidy Hutchinsons, with relatively little to lose, who do it? Extraordinary damage will be done while we wait for someone like that to step up.
The power of the presidency is absolutely out of control for any of this to happen. Dems, when you get back in power (or hey, a GOP that comes to its senses -- I can dream, right? William James and all, will to believe? it's all I've got now...), you absolutely need to rein in the power of the president substantially. I don't care how many of you think it shouldn't be reined in, because you're concerned about climate change and think the only way anything happens on that front is through an energetic presidency. (I read specific reporting saying that that actually did happen with respect to trimming presidential power surrounding "emergencies", that I can't find now. I think maybe Jonathan Adler tweeted or retweeted it, but my searches just now came up dry, so I can't provide an exact source now.) Get over yourselves. We have a president who has deliberately abetted mass murder of Ukrainians, who pardons his own violent foot soldiers attempting (however incompetently and ineffectually) a coup, who absolutely does not care what anyone thinks if he very publicly implements an enemies list...and all his own fully-corrupted party will do is yawn and shrug. If we survive the next four years -- we probably will, but in what state will we be after it? surrounded by "enemies" on every front because we destroyed every friendship we had? -- you need to put down everything else and deal with major civic hygiene issues before anything else.
As a man once said to another man, "If you can't do something smart, do something right."
PW chose neither.
I found cites for climate groups opposing emergency powers reform because they wanted to use the One Ring.
https://x.com/AlexanderMcCoy4/status/1858695472690471354
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/Climate-Emergency-Powers-Report.pdf
Yeah they’re definitely going to keep doing race-conscious hiring; they’re just not going to call it “DEI” any more.
As you predicted, David, PW isn’t going to do anything differently than they would have already done. They just had to be perceived as bending the knee. Which may hurt them a bit in the long run, but Karp is probably right that it would have hurt a lot more in the short run if they didn’t.
But how much they themselves get hurt is not the marker of integrity essential in the legal profession. They have sacrificed their integrity and it will stick to them for far longer than the Trump administration.
Teddy Roosevelt said it best: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Well done Brad.
Oh jesus.
"If he fails"
Well, Paul, Weiss didn't try, so they don't get any points.
Peter, has your opinion about Brad's decision changed?
given that he billed for the work, may we see the lawsuit which was going to be filed?
Mr. Karp’s email describes the terms of the deal in his words, with an obvious intent to minimize consternation and stress of the firm’s staff. But the words of the agreement are the best evidence of what the Administration has and will get from the firm. Mr. Karp says here that the firm has agreed to donate $40 million of work in three named areas of interest to the Administration. But the agreement says the firm will take on projects in those areas “and other mutually agreed projects.” What are those projects, Mr. Karp? Are they now known, or is this something the Administration can hold over your head for the next four years?
Well, now we have a hint as to the answers to my questions. Today, April 8, President Trump told coal workers “we’re gonna use some of those firms to work with you on your leasing,” and with regard to legal support for his tariffs, the President stated “we’re gonna have to use those great firms, I think, to help us with that . . . and we’re getting them for the right price.” Any chance you’ll revisit your assessment of the terms of the Paul Weiss deal, Mr. Lat (“this doesn’t sound like it will require Paul Weiss to do much that it wasn’t already doing”)?
Was it business as usual for Paul, Weiss to provide pro bono support to Mark Pomerantz in his efforts to find a crime to charge Trump, as Pomerantz himself wrote about?
He wrote and published a book, The People vs.Donald Trump: An Inside Account. Pomerantz was ultimately frustrated that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute, but the New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the cause (as opposed to the case). And the state’s Attorney General Letitia James was in on it as well.
Karp and his firm are living in a dream world. Trump is an alpha predator and the firm's capitulation to his demands will only encourage Trump to strike the firm again.
Seems to me the firm is a dead man walking. If it crosses Trump again (and only Trump will know when he feels "crossed") and Trump issues another executive order say barring firm attorneys from federal courthouses, clients of the firm will flee.
Rolling over and accepting Trump's demands will also have adverse effects. No Democratic aligned non-profit or business will hire the firm. The firm cannot sue Trump or any of the agencies of the federal government. What client would hire the firm to negotiate a contract with the federal government knowing that Trump effectively controls the firm? Even in matters not involving Trump or the federal government, clients may be wary in hiring the firm since the potential client now understands that the firm is easily compromised and is controlled by Trump.
Also, Karp demonstrated his ineptitude by sending his long email trying to justify his decision. He should have known that the email will be immediately leaked to the media. He should have called a meeting of the attorneys and staff and personally explained to them his decision after first making sure all cell phones were secured. A personal meeting would have allowed attorneys who disagreed with the decision to rate and rave in private and maybe exhaust some of their venom.
Adam Schiff (with an assist from Atticus Finch) explains to laypeople what it means to *them* when lawyers are attacked:
https://open.substack.com/pub/schiffnotes/p/first-trump-is-going-after-the-lawyers?