Biglaw Firms That Inked Deal With Trump ‘Failed The American People’ Says Paul Hastings Partner

Biglaw is at an inflection point. The industry is under attack, faced with the weaponization of likely unconstitutional executive orders designed to extract a financial price. But rather than fight for the rule of law and the Constitution, too many Biglaw firms opted to make a deal with Donald Trump. And like Lando Calrissian’s deal with Vader, those deals are morphing into something even worse.

But there is resistance. Attorneys at firms that have surrendered to Trump are quitting. Partners are speaking out. And associates are organizing.

Rich Davis is a partner in the Structured Credit practice at Paul Hastings. And in between repping lenders in financings secured by fintech assets, he took to LinkedIn to sound off on what he thinks about the current state of Biglaw. It’s not flattering — at least to those that have bended a knee to Trump.

I have been thinking about these things during the last couple of weeks in the context of the leadership of a number of the most revered law firms in the world making a choice – a voluntary, calculated choice – to either not fight clearly unconstitutional executive orders or, even more baffling, to preemptively strike a corrupt deal with a would-be-tyrant bent on destroying the checks and balances that have been the hallmark of our democracy since our Constitution was ratified.

Of all the things that I might have guessed would happen during a second Trump Administration, it never occurred to me that the leadership of the richest and most powerful law firms in the world would, on behalf of the many fine lawyers who work in those firms, not only betray their oaths to support and uphold the Constitution of the United States, but also decide that this situation, which represents the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War, was a situation that called for “a deal to be made” with the very person that is trying to destroy our democracy.

I am sure the leadership of these law firms have many rational and carefully considered business justifications for why they did what they did – but I don’t care. When faced with a moment – the biggest moment – that demanded courage and integrity, they failed. They failed themselves, they failed the many fine lawyers in their firms, they failed the legal profession and they failed the American people. They failed because they value their profits, and the business of law, more than they value the rule of law. I hope the rest of us will do better.

It’s a stark reminder that the Biglaw surrender to Trump impacts every aspect of the legal profession — and we’re all worse off for it.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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