Paul Weiss alumni wrote an open letter to the firm’s chairman, Brad Karp, protesting the Big Law firm’s agreement with President Donald Trump.
Trump has been targeting Big Law with executive action and a memo to the Department of Justice instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to flag Big Law firms connected to “frivolous” lawsuits brought against the administration. Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, and Covington & Burling have been singled out.
On Monday, 141 people who said they were alumni of Paul Weiss signed an open letter to Karp; 45 of them signed anonymously.
“Instead of a ringing defense of the values of democracy, we witnessed a craven surrender to, and thus complicity in, what is perhaps the gravest threat to the independence of the legal profession since at least the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy,” the alumni wrote in the letter.
Paul Weiss has more than 4,100 living alumni, a group that includes former partners, counsel, associates, and visiting lawyers, according to the firm’s spokesperson.
No former partners signed the letter.
Trump has issued several executive orders aimed at revoking the security clearances of employees at the targeted law firms, as well as to have their government contracts reviewed.
Last week, Trump said he was rescinding a March 14 executive order that was issued against Paul Weiss after coming to an agreement with the firm. The law firm agreed to drop DEI considerations in hiring and donate $40 million in pro bono services.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order rescinding the March 14 action. That has not ended the saga in Big Law or with Paul Weiss.
In a Sunday email to staff, Karp called Trump’s initial executive order an “existential threat.”
The alumni group issued their letter to Karp the following day. Read it below.
