Paul Weiss Is Showing Trump What He Can Get Away With

[In It to Win It]

Balls and Strikes

On Friday, March 14, President Donald Trump effectively delivered an extortion note to one of the biggest law firms in the world. The threat was styled as a “presidential action” titled “Addressing Risks from Paul Weiss,” a white-shoe law firm founded 150 years ago this year. The order directed agency heads to suspend Paul Weiss employees’ security clearances, making it impossible for the firm to effectively represent clients with business that requires clearance, and to “review” the government’s contracts with companies that do business with the firm—an unsubtle hint that people shouldn’t keep hiring Paul Weiss as their lawyers if they want to keep getting hired by the government.

By “risks” posed by Paul Weiss, Trump meant “political grievances.” One partner at the firm, Jeannie Rhee, worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, as well as a lawsuit against the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for their role in the January 6 insurrection. A former Paul Weiss partner, Mark Pomerantz, investigated Trump as a special prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and concluded that Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations.” And like basically every major law firm, Paul Weiss has implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in an effort to make the legal profession’s whiteness marginally less blinding. Trump’s order presents these facts as proof that the firm engages in “blatant discrimination and other activities inconsistent with the interests of the United States.”

Basically, Paul Weiss made the mistakes of being affiliated with people who tried to hold Trump and his friends accountable, and publicly acknowledging the value of diversity in the workplace. So Trump wanted to make the firm pay.

A week after issuing his executive order, Trump announced that Paul Weiss had paid in full. According to Trump, he and Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp agreed that the White House would “withdraw” the order in exchange for Paul Weiss abandoning any diversity policies and undergoing a “comprehensive audit of its employment practices.” Trump also announced that Paul Weiss would provide “the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services” to “support the Administration’s initiatives,” and had “acknowledged the wrongdoing” of Pomerantz. For what it’s worth, Paul Weiss’s internal version of the agreement looks a bit different: It does not include any affirmation that Paul Weiss “will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies,” and it does not include any recognition of Pomerantz’s alleged wrongdoing.

[badhair77]

1. Guilt by association.

Classic McCarthyism.