What’s a law firm to do to show how much it loves Donald Trump? Sure, it can eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and bribe the president with millions in pro bono legal work, but what if they want to really stand out? How about just straight-up working for the administration for free?
That seems to be the approach that both Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis have settled on. The New York Times is reporting that the two firms, both of which cut deals with the administration to avoid being targeted by one of Trump’s many punitive executive orders, have branched out and are doing trade deals now, apparently.
Per the Times, both firms are working on “a range of matters” for the Commerce Department. Since we no longer have a functioning government that allows us to know exactly what is being done with our tax dollars, it’s not entirely clear what services the firms are providing. Instead, of course, we got one of those floridly aggressive statements that the administration loves to issue: Commerce is “working with some of America’s top law firms and legal minds to cement the truly historic trade deals that President Trump negotiated for the American people. This partnership is helping unlock unprecedented foreign market access for American exports, and our workers, farmers and industries will be the biggest beneficiaries in the years to come.”
Setting aside the fact that all of Trump’s trade “deals” are just nonsensical moving targets and that the administration is trying to hide that its policies are cratering the economy, it is not normal for major American law firms to have a “partnership” with the government to represent it for free.
Related | Injustice for All: Trump targets lawyers, and a First Amendment fumble
Paul, Weiss has really gone above and beyond in terms of showing fealty to the administration. The firm was the first to agree to the multimillion dollar pro bono bribe, though getting in early meant they only paid $40 million. They’ve lost business, and rightly so, over this capitulation. They’ve also lost top talent, because who wants to work for a firm willing to sell out this hard?
Because everything is so corrupt and stupid, both firms were “connected” to do free work for the Commerce Department by Boris Epshteyn, one of Trump’s personal attorneys. Sure, Epshteyn is so corrupt that he was investigated by Trump’s own attorneys for his attempts at influence peddling, but why would that stand in the way?
Ostensibly, all the firms that promised to provide nearly $1 billion in free legal services were supposed to be helping underserved populations. Paul, Weiss explicitly stated that their freebie work aimed “to assist our nation’s veterans, to combat anti-Semitism, and to promote the fairness of the justice system.” Not sure how doing the trade deal work that Commerce Department lawyers would normally be doing falls under any of those things, really.
Before it began helping with all those truly historic trade deals, Kirkland & Ellis had already displayed a remarkable amount of moral flexibility about its deal with Trump. The firm’s chair accompanied Trump to the Middle East in May, part of the corporate grift circus that surrounded the president for that trip, so it’s just natural that the firm continues to abase itself.
While the initial goal of Trump’s attacks on Big Law was to punish firms with ties to Democrats, some firms’ eagerness to capitulate makes them useful for many of Trump’s needs. Indeed, the president has said he thinks these pro bono deals would allow the firms to personally represent him—at no cost.
To be fair, the convicted felon and lawsuit-happy “businessman” does have a lot of need for personal legal representation, and he does hate to pay for it, so these quisling law firms can look forward to that.
