Shame on the venerable Paul Weiss law firm for giving in to President Trump and breaching every cardinal principle on which the firm has stood for generations.
Roy Cohn would never have caved. How do I know? He said as much.
In October 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew, after protesting his inn
ocence for 65 days, pleaded no contest to a criminal tax evasion charge and resigned his office. Multiple criminal charges, involving cash payoffs to Agnew for the award of state contracts when he was governor of Maryland, were dropped as part of the plea bargain.
In an open letter to Agnew, published Oct. 15, 1973 on the op‐ed page of the New York Times, Cohn — already the lawyer and mentor for a young real estate developer named Donald Trump — took Agnew to task, in words that could have been written for the Paul Weiss capitulation.
Cohn’s tone was defiant. He wrote: “How could a man who made courage a household word lose his? How could one of this decade’s shrewdest leaders make a dumb mistake such as you did in quitting ... If you had stood your ground ... your chances for legal and political survival were excellent. ...Your decision not to stand up and fight was more than a personal one. It was at best a grievous disappointment to, and at worst a betrayal of, millions of Americans who gave you the opportunity for greatness ...”
The Paul Weiss settlement was a betrayal of the profession that gave the firm its “opportunity for greatness.”
Paul Weiss, a multinational law firm, had come under fire from Trump for personal reasons arising from before he was reelected. A Mar. 14 executive order had terminated federal contracts with the firm and suspended security clearances for its lawyers, saying the firm was undermining the judicial system.
Brad Karp, the top gun at Paul Weiss, went to the White House to meet with Trump and his advisers. Karp struck an astounding deal that sent shockwaves through the legal community.
Trump rescinded his order after Karp promised to abandon diversity policies and provide $40 million worth of free legal work to support the president’s agenda. In a Truth Social post, Trump said that Paul Weiss would commit to “merit-based” hiring and promotion, and “will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies.”
Trump’s order was riddled with constitutional issues. It interfered with the firm’s free speech and association rights, as well as the right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Trump has issued similar executive orders against the law firms Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling. Perkins is fighting the order in court, while Covington is weighing its options.
Most disgraceful, Paul Weiss acknowledged unspecified “wrongdoing” on the part of its former partner Mark Pomerantz, whom Trump had singled out for opprobrium. In fact, Pomerantz did nothing wrong. He left Paul Weiss, where he was a partner, in 2021 to assist New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance in investigating Trump’s finances. Pomerantz examined allegations that Trump had overstated the values of his properties to obtain bank loans and concluded there was a bank fraud case.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who succeeded Vance, disagreed; the case was never brought. Pomerantz had nothing to do with the prosecution of the Stormy Daniels hush money case, which concluded with Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, or any other case involving Trump.
What Pomerantz did was in the finest traditions of the bar. Carey Dunne, a partner at Davis Polk, joined Pomerantz in the district attorney’s office to investigate Trump’s financial dealings. When Bragg declined to prosecute the bank fraud case in 2022, both Pomerantz and Dunne resigned.
When I was in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, renowned trial lawyer Arthur Liman took a leave of absence from Paul Weiss to prosecute Lowell Birrell, whom he called the “most notorious stock swindler in the 1950s.” Liman won a jury verdict of conviction, then returned to Paul Weiss.
Since then, other leading members of the bar have lent their assistance to complicated prosecutions. This is how the system works.
The Paul Weiss surrender is a wretched development. If a major, powerful and talented firm cannot fight Trump, with the law entirely on its side, it sets a terrible precedent that resistance is futile.
Paul Weiss was worried about keeping large clients that have extensive contact with the government. But its decision to avoid an instant business hit has resulted in the complete sacrifice of the principles, history and reputation that made it successful. As Cohn put it in his open letter to Agnew, Alger Hiss and Daniel Ellsberg “can still argue their innocence. You no longer can.”
Lawyers were quick to criticize Karp’s capitulation. John W. Keker, one of the country’s top trial lawyers, specializes in criminal defense work, but in 1989 led the prosecution of Oliver North. He framed the position neatly: “Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the Federal Government. An attack on lawyers who perform this work is inexcusable and despicable. Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Marc Elias — a former Perkins Coie partner and top lawyer for Democrats — whom Trump in his recent Justice Department speech also singled out by name for excoriation, assailed the Paul Weiss agreement. The firm “set a new standard for shameful capitulation,” he wrote. “This is a stain on the firm, every one of its partners, and the entire legal profession.”
Paul Weiss abandoned its principles articulated over as half-century ago by its founding partner, Judge Simon Rifkind, “in all things to govern ourselves as members of a free democratic society with responsibilities both to our profession and our country.”
Cohn never would have settled. Even he understood a “sense of responsibility” to the country.
James D. Zirin, author and legal analyst, is a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District. He is also the host of the public television talk show and podcast Conversations with Jim Zirin. ...read more read less
