Future
Big Law Splinters Under a Trump Onslaught
The president’s repeated clashes with the nation’s most prestigious law firms has had a destabilizing business effect.
President Trump’s clashes with large American law firms have had a ripple effect across the sector.Credit…Leah Millis/Reuters
No Kumbaya moment
President Trump has opened a new front in his attack on Big Law.
On Tuesday, he signed an executive order that targeted Jenner & Block, a major white-shoe firm, days after issuing a far-reaching memorandum threatening to punish any law firm that he contends has unfairly challenged his administration.
One of the biggest questions has been whether Big Law would band together amid Trump’s barrage. So far, the opposite has happened: Corporate law firms are using Trump’s assault as a competitive opportunity, The Times reports.
As Paul, Weiss was dealing with its own executive order this month, rival firms dove in to try to poach clients and partners.
The firm’s competitors moved in swiftly. Several of Paul, Weiss’s top rivals, including Sullivan & Cromwell and Kirkland & Ellis, tried to poach Paul, Weiss rainmakers within days of Trump issuing an executive order that could have seriously hobbled its business, according to The Times. They took a soft approach with the firm’s leaders, saying that they sympathized with their plight, but that if they wanted out of the turmoil, they could name their price.
Jon Ballis, the chairman of Kirkland & Ellis, said in a statement to The Times that his firm didn’t try to recruit Paul, Weiss lawyers. A Sullivan & Cromwell spokesman similarly denied trying to recruit the firm’s lawyers.
The outreach made a bad situation worse. Panic was already roiling through Paul, Weiss over the potentially catastrophic effect of the executive order.
