/4 But frankly when you’re looking for a lawyer, yielding is not what you are looking for. I think they’re going to take a hit with client credibility, with attorney loyalty, and with credibility with judges.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
writing as a mid level associate at a biglaw firm that has not yet been targeted by Trump, if that should happen and my firm surrendered like this I would be gone within the week. This is an absolute red line for me.
As a follow up, today I spent some time calling other associates to plan how we can prepare for a PW-style order and what we can do to stiffen the firm’s spine. These were productive conversations. You can do this, too. Do not wait to be targeted. Talk to your colleagues.
And I'll help any of those lawyers setup and run their own practice.
You can build your own firm, especially if you have any business development sense at all. I've even taught many how to go about finding paying clients if they haven't figured it out already.
If you yield on the small things, you end up supporting/doing govt torture/murder of ppl, citizens or not. Nalvany knew this, as did the ppl that killed him. This is where the road of capitulation ends.
When I’m looking for a lawyer, I want the most cowardly and pathetic representation I can find so they’ll be perfect. They won’t even defend themselves, there’s no way they’ll defend me.
At some point the big and the powerful, like massive international law firms and universities with huge endowments, have to stand up and fight. If not them, then who?
A terrible look for litigators/criminal lawyers, but my guess is the corporate side of their practice is driving this. A lot of corporate work is about compliance (securities, competition, tax), and if the regulators are corrupt, you're now in the business of flattery and bribery.
Can't speak to that, but it is amazing to me how quickly we're sliding into that territory. It's only been two months. Two years is unthinkable, much less four.
The optics of reaching an agreement are bad, but the terms of the agreement as written are vague and basically innocuous. Arguably it shows good lawyering, getting the firm out from under a serious threat with hand waving platitudes and a promise to provide pro bono service to veterans.
In large government investigations, most of these big firms bend over backwards for the government—including generating a lot of data analysis for the government that the government doesn’t have the man power to do itself. I know from being an associate.
I tried to argue (gently) that it’s a bad strategy, but it’s common practice. So, I’m not really sure this is the kind of hit to PW that you are imagining.
Obviously bad if you're a client of this particular law firm, and bad if you work for them – but surely the worst part is that the federal government is swallowing up independent firms & institutions to do their bidding. Paul Weiss today, Columbia today, more are next
I would never ever hire them…doesn’t matter what “side” I was on or they were on, this is pathetic and weak and folding to political threats instead of zealously defending clients means they AREN’T lawyers anymore.
If I wanted a lawyer I’d want one who was willing to be an annoying arsehole, but respectfully, and one who remembered their duties to their client, and the court/law
Comments
Last thing a lawyer wants is to get tainted by the stink of cowardice, it's something of an obstacle in this field.
You can build your own firm, especially if you have any business development sense at all. I've even taught many how to go about finding paying clients if they haven't figured it out already.
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social/post/3lkttkclutk2q
Whoops.
$40 M / hr.
Clients want lawyers who when faced with an existential legal challenge are all Lady Macbeth when her husband asks what if the fail:
“We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail”
https://www.cadwalader.com/fin-news/index.php?nid=123&eid=900&tag=2025-03-20-Trump%27s+War+on+Consumer+Protection%2C+Humph%28rey%29