Et Tu, Brad Karp?
The chair of legal powerhouse Paul Weiss, a bastion of liberalism, cut a deal with Donald Trump. Is he jeopardizing the firm's legacy and his own?
I’M STRUGGLING MIGHTILY to see the silver lining in the deal that Paul Weiss cut with Donald Trump.
On one level, Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp performed magic. While other law firms seem paralyzed by Trump’s attacks, Karp sprang into action. In a matter of days, he managed to get the executive order directed against his firm lifted. It was masterful. Amazing. Yet, I am not applauding.
It’s difficult to read the terms of the agreement without feeling sickened. No amount of spin can rid the unpleasant taste that Paul Weiss has sold out, thrown its illustrious legacy into the dumpster, and profoundly damaged the dignity of the legal profession.
Some parts of the agreement, which Trump shared on Truth Social, seem benign (e.g., the firm’s pledge to uphold justice and do “a wide range of pro bono”), but two sections got my attention:
Paul Weiss’s promise not to “adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies” and its agreement to submit to “a comprehensive audit of all of its employment practices.”
Paul Weiss's pledge to donate “$40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump’s term to support the Administration’s initiatives,” including aiding veterans and fighting antisemitism, plus “other mutually agreed projects.”
Though Trump bragged on Truth Social that Paul Weiss agreed to abandon its DEI efforts, several news outlets report that the actual agreement makes no mention of DEI at all. (Could our president be lying?)
But there’s no dispute that the firm is dedicating $40 million to Trump-sanctioned pro bono. It’s not just the amount that’s eye-popping (though that’s only 1.52% of the firm’s annual revenue), but the unsettling idea that the executive branch can intrude into the pro bono activities of a private law firm. And you have to wonder if Paul Weiss would take on a pro bono matter that challenges Trump going forward.
IT FEELS LIKE RANSOM payment to get your life back. “The $40 million in legal fees is more akin to consideration given for a release or dismissal of a complaint than it is pro bono or free legal services,” says law firm consultant Peter Zueghauser.
The reaction to the deal has been disbelief. “We knew Paul Weiss was negotiating with the administration but we didn’t expect complete acquiescence,” says one Big Law insider.
KARP IS NOW ON THE DEFENSIVE, trying to reassure the troops that normality has returned. On Sunday, he penned a long email to the firm (hat tip: David Lat’s Original Jurisdiction), arguing that the agreement was critical to the firm’s survival. And in an earlier memo leaked to the New York Times, he stated: “With [the executive order] behind us, we can devote our complete focus — as we always do — to our clients, our work, our colleagues and our firm.”
That might be wishful thinking. While the firm is now liberated from Trump’s crippling executive order, it finds itself with a new cross to bear: Being the poster firm for Big Law’s cowardice and greed in the face of tyranny.
By most accounts, the firm would have prevailed in court. After all, Perkins & Coie, the object of a similar Trump executive order, recently sued the administration and succeeded in getting a temporary injunction order. But Paul Weiss decided on a different course – trading its position as a standard bearer of the profession for a quick get-out-of-jail card.
MAKE NO MISTAKE, this is a huge win for Trump. Paul Weiss is not just another highly profitable Big Law firm but one with a legacy steeped in supporting civil rights and racial equity — the very causes that are in Trump’s line of fire. Long before it became fashionable, the firm hired and promoted Black lawyers. For years at a stretch, Paul Weiss was the Wall Street firm with the highest percentage of Black partners; it’s also been home to some of the nation’s most distinguished Black lawyers, including Ted Wells, Jeh Johnson, Loretta Lynch, and William Thaddeus Coleman Jr., the firm’s first Black associate (hired in 1949) who served as the Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford.
Paul Weiss has also been an unabashed supporter of liberal causes, particularly Karp, who’s been a leading fundraiser for the Democrats. One can only imagine Trump’s delight at the sight of Karp genuflecting before him, pleading for absolution. According to The Guardian, Trump called his buddy Robert Guiffra, the co-chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, a rival firm, for his input while Karp was sitting in the Oval Office during the negotiation. No doubt, Trump enjoyed rubbing Karp’s nose into it.
So what did Karp get in return for this indignity? Well, enough. Certainly enough to stop a hemorrhage of clients that posed an imminent threat just a few days ago.
“The agreement Brad apparently struck is a no-brainer for a firm needing to protect its partners, employees, and clients,” a Big Law partner tells me. “But a horrible development for the broader industry.”
PAUL WEISS MIGHT BE SAVING ITS OWN HIDE, but it’s throwing the rest of Big Law to the wolves. The fear is that what tenuous resistance might exist in the profession has now been eviscerated by Paul Weiss’s singular action. Already, the New York City Bar has ceased its effort to enlist law firms to sign a statement of principles to protest Trump’s unlawful attacks on the profession. And it’s uncertain if there will be a critical mass of leading firms that will sign onto the amicus brief for Perkins Coie. (Paul Weiss had been working with Munger, Tolles & Olson to gather signatures but will it sign now?)
“If Paul Weiss won’t fight this, there’s this fear that no one will,” says another partner at a major firm. “What hope do the rest of us have?”
That hopelessness is what Trump is banking on. The White House is “buoyed” by Paul Weiss’s “capitulation,” reports The Guardian. And according to The Hill, Trump is bragging that law firms now “want to make deals.”
Indeed, Paul Weiss has created a precedent that directly plays right into Trump’s hands. “By rewarding Trump’s baseless order with a public-relations win, Paul Weiss is only encouraging Trump to issue more meritless orders in the future,” writes David Lat. “You don’t need to be a law-and-economics guru to understand that if you incentivize certain behavior, you’ll probably get more of it.”
It’s a travesty how Paul Weiss has cheapened its own legacy. By making this pact with Trump, Paul Weiss has turned its back on what set it apart from the madding crowd of Big Law: a willingness to fight the good fight in the face of injustice. That’s always been the Paul Weiss brand and, poof, it’s now in shambles.
AND WHAT ABOUT KARP’S LEGACY? An energetic and charismatic leader, he’s led the firm since 2008, catapulting the firm to the tippy top tier of Big Law. (In 2024, according to Law.com, its revenue grew 32% to $2.63 billion from $2 billion the previous year.) What will define him now?
“It clouds Brad’s legacy,” says a Paul Weiss insider about the agreement, “especially for all the young lawyers who believed in his principle-centered leadership.” This source adds: “It’s not what I thought Brad would do. But it’s what I thought Brad would have to do as firm chair.”
As firm chair, Karp delivered the goods. He did what he had to do to keep the enterprise going. But does that make it morally defensible?
“What he did was reprehensible — a complete disgrace,” says a former Big Law lawyer. “Everyone there — partners, associates, and staff — should be leaving en masse,” adding, “Brad Karp should resign and crawl into a black hole!”
There’s a collective need for a villain at this juncture, and Karp is the logical pick. To be fair, though, he was in an awful pickle. According to several sources, he was under enormous pressure, particularly by corporate partners with big books of business, to find a way out of the executive order. Panic was in the air that clients would quickly drop the firm or that top rainmakers would abandon ship for a firm that’s more “Trump-friendly.” At the same time, there was a faction that wanted to fight Trump.
But when push came to shove, money won the day. Paul Weiss has been so wildly successful under Karp’s leadership (the profit per equity partner jumped to $7.5 million in 2024 from $6.5 million the previous year) that the idea of taking a hit for the sake of principle, or anything else, has become unthinkable. “We always knew that profits drive decisions, but this makes it clear,” says a Paul Weiss insider, noting how some of the high-priced laterals have made the culture more corrosive. “I often think that the more you have, the more you are scared to lose it all.”
As for Karp, there’s a sense of disappointment. Most people I talked to feel he’s genuinely committed to equality and justice — causes he’s championed most of his career. “He’s brilliant in so many ways,” says a lawyer who knows him. “But sometimes the important thing is to know right from wrong, especially when you’re leading not just the law firm but the legal profession.”
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Hard times make hard choices and we are in very hard times. Your article is well nuanced.
Brad Karp had to choose between doing right in the world and doing right by the financial considerations of his law firm. One is more long-term and one more short-term. One of the smartest, kindest people I ever knew, Ramsey Clark, frequently said “life is choice.”
I know people who have strong opinions on both sides of whether Mr. Karp did the right thing. I appreciate you presenting this with some nuance.
Had he gone the other way, his firm would have suffered financially. However, there are some things worth dying for, and certainly some things worth losing money for. Simply put, what those things are is a personal decision and, unfortunately, for Brad Karp, it wasn’t entirely personal. He was also deciding for many people for whom he thought he had responsibility.