Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a powerful law firm with Democrat-tied leaders, has caved to pressure from President Trump, offering $40 million in pro bono legal services for Trump administration initiatives and agreeing to take on clients regardless of their political affiliations. The decision, sealed after a March 20 meeting between Trump and the firm’s chair Brad Karp, marks a major turning point for the firm’s liberal public image. But with corporate clients like Amazon and ExxonMobil paying the firm to represent its interests, the pivot suggests a move to keep its influential position amid a new political landscape.
After the agreement, Trump reversed a March 14 executive order that had threatened to yank security clearances for Paul Weiss attorneys, end the firm’s federal contracts, and largely block its attorneys from federal buildings. Trump has also issued orders targeting the Democratic Party-affiliated law firms Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling.
“It is a sad day for the legal industry,” Democratic lawyer Marc Elias said. “Paul Weiss, didn't just bend a knee, it set a new standard for shameful capitulation. This is a stain on the firm, every one of its partners, and the entire legal profession.” But the firm’s chair Brad Karp defended the deal as being in line with the firm’s principles. After Karp and the White House finalized the text of the agreement, Trump’s statement posted to his Truth Social platform added language that the firm would also reject the use of DEI in hiring, according to the New York Times.
On Truth Social, Trump said that Karp “acknowledged the wrongdoing” of former Paul Weiss partner Mark Pomerantz. While at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Pomerantz led an investigation into Trump’s finances and payments to Stormy Daniels, then resigned in February 2022 when the D.A.’s office declined to press charges.
Paul Weiss is also one of the Big Law firms that scrubbed their websites of mentions of its work for former special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigations of Trump and alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election after Trump was elected for a second term. The Wall Street Journal reported that one client had already dropped Paul Weiss in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case following Trump’s order targeting it.
At another white-shoe law firm, Skadden Arps, associate Rachel Cohen publicly resigned as she says the firm has not opted to sign onto a defense of Perkins Coie, which is suing the Trump administration to stop the executive order barring its attorneys from federal buildings. In a company-wide email, she wrote, “This is not what I saw for my career or evening, but Paul Weiss’ decision to cave to the Trump administration on DEI, representation and staffing has forced my hand."
"The firm has been given time and opportunity to do the right thing. Thus far, we have not. This is a moment that demands urgency," she wrote.
