Big Law Goes MAGA

Paul, Weiss was one of America’s premier law firms. It was a storied, respected, and powerful firm. It was a go-to for American corporate legal challenges that needed determined, smart people hacking away at terrible, complex legal challenges. They also fought for the rights of Americans against the power of the Federal government, during and before Donald Trump’s rise to power.

Until they went MAGA.

Oh, they’ll contest that characterization until their last breath, but the Paul, Weiss firm is now a functional element of TrumpCo, a cog in the machine of the autocratic takeover of the American government and legal system being pursued with bloody-minded determination by the Administration.

To punish Paul, Weiss for failing to bend the knee to Trump for reasons too dull to recount here, the firm was threatened by an executive order that its CEO Brad Karp believed would destroy it.

Instead, he’s destroyed the firm’s reputation by engaging in one of the most sweeping acts of corporate cowardice imaginable. His reasoning was that of the accommodationist, cowardice disguised as practicality in the face of oppression.

This one graf from the Paul, Weiss CEO's latest whimpering excuse for capitulating to Donald Trump perfectly captures the systemic and moral rot hollowing out America’s institutions in the Age of Trump.

The message is always the same: “Well, there’s nothing we can do except surrender.”

But here's the truth: the bad guys never stop at the first concession.

Appeasement is a trap, not a strategy. The tide doesn’t roll back. The ratchet only turns one way. And Brad Karp, in his infinite arrogance, thinks he’s finished compromising himself, his firm, and the lawyers who serve under him. He thinks he’s made the last deal with the devil. He joins Meta, CNN, and Disney in settling or compromising with Trump in legal cases where they foolishly believe this is the last thing they’ll ever need to satisfy the Mad King.

Let me paraphrase my grandmother (based on a hilariously true story): “You can throw fried chicken bones to that alligator all day, but it won’t stop coming up the dock just because you ran out of fried chicken.” Trump and his ilk—authoritarian, criminal, kleptocratic, and pathologically venal — know a mark when they spot one. And they know they’ve got a big one in Karp. The man practically lit a beacon, saying, “Come bully me, I’ll fold.”

So don’t act surprised when Paul, Weiss starts filing amicus briefs in the Supreme Court, breathlessly praising the Trump administration’s latest unconstitutional fever dream. Don’t blink when Karp pens some bootlicking letter about the importance of “maintaining productive relations with the White House.”

When the next FEC report pops up, expect to see Paul, Weiss lawyers suddenly donating to the Trump SuperPAC and Retirement Fund after decades of donating to Democrats. Paul, Weiss also promised to end DEI in its firm, which means you can expect their next round of partner selections to be as lily-white as the underside of Trump’s FUPA.

This isn’t a hypothetical. It’s a blueprint.

I’ve seen this movie before. I was in the room. I’ve been to this rodeo. Whatever cliche you want to use, I’ve watched this in horror over and over. People who are in a stronger position than Trump willingly cede their power to him. People think their bottom line will be protected with just one more dirty and humiliating transaction with a man who revels in dragging others into his web.

The army of consultants and lobbyists in Washington who told me, “Hey, I’ve got kids in college/a recent divorce/a new place in Aspen/a boat/a jet/a mortgage for the place in Georgetown, and I just can’t risk it.” quite literally numbers in the hundreds.

They weren’t wrong, but they’ve never truly prospered since then.

At first, I had moments of “Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?” I had it made before Trump—money, power, access. I was a well-compensated, back-of-the-house guy with direct lines to Capitol Hill and state elected officials and the ability to make things happen inside and outside the electoral system.

I didn’t just lose it all—I torched it.

And I’d do it again. Eyes open. No regrets. I’m not some moral exemplar. I couldn’t stand the poison all my friends and colleagues drank like men staggering from the desert. I couldn’t be a part of it. It wasn’t just aesthetic, as so many of the Vichy GOP claimed. It wasn’t just ideological, as the social conservatives claimed.

It was just wrong.

The tiny handful of people willing to stand on principle — Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Denver Riggleman, and a vanishingly small tribe of electeds — are all gone, out, over. Plenty of GOP members in the House and Senate loathe him, but not one has the courage to be the consistent middle finger to Trump’s evils and excesses.

When Reince Priebus was told, “Trump will run as an independent and destroy the GOP,” he sprinted to Trump Tower like a scalded dog, sold the party’s soul in exchange for a few more months of relevance, and smiled while doing it. The catalog of lost and broken souls who bent the knee, kissed the ass, and shredded their pride and honor from 2015 until this very day keeps growing. None of them regained their souls, and the more risk they posed to Trump, the deeper their humiliation. (Ted Cruz, call your office.)

Do you think Paul, Weiss is different because they’re lawyers in Manhattan instead of party hacks in Washington? They’re not.

No one from the Old Order is left—only hollow suits pretending their principles didn’t die a final death on January 6th.

Now, the legal profession, the media, and the business world are all catching up, one compromised inch at a time. Trumpism is a political Gresham’s Law—the bad drives out the good and fast.

Do you want the proper response to Trump's pressure? Here it is:

“Fuck you, Mr. President. We will use every ounce of our legal acumen and institutional power to fight you, to expose you, to stop you. If you try to break us with illegal pressure and abuse of office, then we’ll go down fighting. But we won’t kneel.”

I pity the lawyers of Paul, Weiss. They’re being led by a man who doesn’t know he’s already been conquered. A venal coward at the helm, the perfect chew toy for Donald Trump. And this is only the beginning.

Paul, Weiss… welcome to #ETTD.

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