The Top 10 Stories Of 2025
Trump v. Biglaw, AI fails, superstars of the SCOTUS bar, the top 17 law schools—the subjects of last year’s biggest stories shouldn’t surprise anyone.
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Happy new year! I hope your 2026 is off to an excellent start.
How was 2025 for you? Last year was challenging for many people, for many reasons—and it was tough for our family as well, because of a health issue faced by a loved one (who is thankfully doing much better now). If your 2025 was difficult, I hope that 2026 brings you better news.
Let’s bid farewell to 2025 by reviewing the year’s top posts here at Original Jurisdiction. It’s an annual tradition, performed for every full year of this newsletter’s existence—in 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021—and it provides an excellent opportunity to look back on the year in legal news. [UPDATE (1/16/2026, 5:28 p.m.): To clarify (in response to a reader email), these are the top stories based on traffic or readership, not my personal preference.]
Here are the top stories of 2025, from #10 to #1 (and yes, there are actually 11 pieces listed below—I combined two closely related stories, which happened to be back-to-back in the ranking, into a single entry):
10. Trump’s Attack On Perkins Coie Sends Chills Down My Spine
Perhaps the biggest story of 2025 from the perspective of most OJ readers was what might be called “Trump v. Biglaw.” Donald Trump fired off a series of executive orders (EOs) targeting large law firms that had incurred his ire, for various reasons—such as representing or employing individual attorneys on his enemies list. Trump issued the first of these EOs on March 6, against Perkins Coie.1 I wrote critically about the order, declaring that it sent chills down my spine—quoting Judge Beryl Howell, who held the EO unconstitutional and enjoined it (as did every other federal judge who ruled on the legality of these orders).
9. SCOTUS Clerk Hiring Watch: OT 2025 And Beyond
My reporting on the hiring of Supreme Court law clerks is one of my most popular features here at Original Jurisdiction, and SCOTUS clerk hiring roundups have made my lists of top posts for every year that I’ve done them. And I’ll have a new one for you very soon, hopefully including the latest hires by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson—who interviewed finalists in mid-December, extending offers shortly thereafter. (I have some names already, but I need a little more confirmation; if you can help out, please email me at davidlat@substack.com or text me at 917-397-2751.)
8. Paul Weiss Cuts A Deal With Donald Trump
Four firms targeted by Trump-issued EOs—Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey—fought the orders in court (and prevailed). But nine other firms avoided getting hit with EOs by entering into settlements with the Trump administration, in which they promised to provide a total of $940 million in pro bono legal services to support causes favored by the administration (among other undertakings). The first firm to cut a deal was Paul Weiss—which was also the most criticized for doing so, perhaps because it arguably gave other firms the political “cover” to settle (and also established a template for such agreements).
7. The 2025 U.S. News Rankings: All Hail The... T17?
For many years, the top 14 schools in the U.S. News law school rankings remained the same, changing spots only among themselves. But in the 2025 rankings, there was a four-way tie for #14—with UT Austin, Vanderbilt, and Washington University joining Georgetown, a traditional member of the T14, to form the “T17.” The two other notable changes: Harvard Law School clocked in at #6, its all-time lowest ranking, and Cornell Law School fell out of the T14 to land at #18. Are these just blips—or will their slips in the rankings be long-lasting?
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6. A Skadden Associate Urges Peers To Stand Up For The Rule Of Law
Many lawyers at the nine firms that settled with the Trump administration were upset over what they perceived as their employers’ capitulation to creeping autocracy. Some of these lawyers expressed their dissent by “voting with their feet” and quitting. But nobody caused as much of a stir as Rachel Cohen, a 2022 graduate of HLS who resigned from her job as a third-year finance associate at Skadden. After news of the Paul Weiss settlement broke, Cohen initially announced a “conditional” resignation, “revocable if the firm comes up with a satisfactory response to the current moment.” But then Skadden announced its own deal with Trump—which Cohen found highly unsatisfactory. In an interview with me, she said that Biglaw firms that refuse to stand up to Trump “are totally abdicating their moral duty and responsibility.”
5. SCOTUSblog Founder Tom Goldstein Hit With 22-Count Federal Indictment
One of the most talked-about stories of 2025 was the federal government filing a 22-count indictment against Tom Goldstein, accusing the renowned Supreme Court advocate of tax fraud and making false statements on a loan application. Later this month, Goldstein’s case will go to trial—and he insists on his innocence, as Jeffrey Toobin reported in a fascinating piece for The New York Times (gift link).
4. A Major Law Firm’s ChatGPT Fail and An AI Fail By An Elite Litigation Firm
I view 2025 as the year that AI “arrived,” i.e., started to make a difference in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people (including me). But increased usage brought increased screw-ups—committed not just by solo or small-firm practitioners, but by large law firms, too. In January, lawyers at Morgan & Morgan, the giant plaintiff-side firm, filed motions in limine featuring a slew of hallucinated cases. Some observers minimized the significance of that episode, noting that while Morgan & Morgan might be big in terms of headcount, it’s not “Biglaw.” But then Boies Schiller & Flexner—a member of both the Am Law 200 and Vault 100, and definitely a Biglaw firm—submitted its own appellate brief containing AI-generated errors. Will we see fewer AI fails in 2026, as firms learn from these cautionary tales? Here’s hoping.
3. Three Lawyers Who Lost Their Lives In The D.C. Plane Crash
On January 29, 2025, an American Airlines passenger plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. All 67 people aboard both aircraft were killed—including, tragically, three young lawyers. Sarah Lee Best and Elizabeth Keys, both 33, were associates at Wilkinson Stekloff, one of the nation’s leading litigation boutiques; Kiah Duggins, 30, was an attorney with Civil Rights Corps. May their memories be for a blessing.
2. A Top SCOTUS Litigator’s Major Lateral Move
Tom Goldstein wasn’t the only superstar of the Supreme Court bar who had an eventful 2025. In February 2025, Andrew Ross Sorkin and his colleagues at Dealbook broke the news that Neal Katyal, the legendary SCOTUS advocate, was leaving Hogan Lovells to join Milbank. In an interview with me, Katyal explained how he never thought he’d leave Hogan Lovells, his professional home for more than a dozen years—but Milbank and its chair, Scott Edelman, “made the impossible possible.” (In April 2025, Milbank entered into a settlement with Trump—but that hasn’t stopped Katyal from taking on the Trump administration in court, including arguing in the Supreme Court against Trump’s tariffs.)
1. Brad Karp’s Email To Paul Weiss About Its Deal With The Trump Administration
As longtime OJ readers know, I was critical of both the Trump EOs against Biglaw and the Biglaw settlements with Trump. But my readers also know that I believe in presenting a wide range of perspectives, including ones that I disagree with. So if you’re interested in Trump v. Biglaw as a subject, I urge you to read the email that Brad Karp, chairman of Paul Weiss, sent to all of his colleagues on March 23, attempting to explain and defend his firm’s deal with The Donald. Many view the settlements as indefensible—but Karp, who was a successful litigator before taking the helm at Paul Weiss, put forward his best case I’m not sure I’m persuaded, but I also don’t think I’ve read a better defense than Karp’s (although if I’ve missed one, please send my way).2
So those were the top stories of 2025—and if you’re thinking it was a pretty depressing year, you’re not alone. But to look on the bright side, 2026 has to bring better news—right?
I’ve been on a break since December 22—currently in California, spending time with family—but I’m planning to publish a Judicial Notice news roundup on either January 4 or 5. The podcast will also pick back up, on Wednesday, January 14 (rather than January 7, owing to the challenges of scheduling interviews around the holidays).
I hope you and your families have been able to enjoy some rest and relaxation over the past few weeks. As always, thank you for your readership and support, and I look forward to spending another interesting year with you.
The EO targeting Perkins Coie, dated March 6, was the first executive order aimed at a Biglaw firm. But Trump had previously issued a presidential memorandum directed at Covington & Burling, dated February 25, that was narrower in scope.
Speaking of Brad Karp, please note the update I appended to the December 21 edition of Judicial Notice: although Karp did exchange emails with the late Jeffrey Epstein, it was in the context of a client representation. As the firm explained in a statement sent to Law.com, “Paul, Weiss was retained by Leon Black, then the CEO of the firm’s longtime client Apollo, to negotiate a series of fee disputes with Jeffrey Epstein that spanned several years. The firm was adverse to Epstein, and at no point did Paul, Weiss, or Brad Karp ever represent him.”
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David You seem so outraged by Trump fighting back against the outrageous lawfare which in the long run is meant to delay and stall an agenda approved by a majority of the electorate Where are your questions about who is funding these nuisance cases and where is that money coming from, I do not mean the first person listed but the behind the scenes countries and fronts that are scared that reform and change will leave them without their power and ability to obfuscate the public. Why are you not questioning the false proposition that colleges are fighting for free speech when they allow hate speech and civil rights violations against Jewish American students or how racial preferences have hurt Asian Americans and prevented upward mobility. We are seeing a major change in the perception of education and freedom. I think that in the next decade your former endeavor Above the Law will see that the vaunted law schools will loose their power as enrollment and prestige moves South. You will see Supreme Court change from the arrogant halls of Yale and Harvard et al to law schools of and by the people in Alabama or Georgia or Iowa As a doctor for over 50 years, I can tell you that the worst patient is the one in denial and who will not admit there is an underlying illness. I think you are suffereing from viral rampant group think leading to an undiagnosed case of Trump Derangement Syndrome I think your buddies in big law are chasing bucks and not democracy and are blind to the difference of being loyal patriotic opposition and working for a coup
Jeffrey Kunkes, MD