Jones Day Advertising Its Trump Admin Ties Because They Have No Shame
This isn't wrong as much as it's tacky and stupid.
Donald Trump (by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia)
Is Donald Trump infectious? I don’t mean, “is he a vector for syphilis?” — though, hell, that would hardly shock me. I’m not even talking about “Donald Trump” the individual. I mean, is the phenomenon of “Donald Trump” in all its tacky, shameless self-promotion an infectious condition? Because it seems as though entering the man’s orbit turns everyone into desperate attention whores willing to push the very envelope of propriety to get one additional morsel of notoriety.
Steve Bannon cast himself as the bloated rock god of nativism until Trump’s whims pushed him to the margins. Jared Kushner might not talk much, but these hot takes about the ascending influence of the phenomenally unqualified NYU Law grad aren’t sprouting from nowhere — that’s the end result of a diligent public relations campaign. Mike Pence mugged like the foreign relations novice that he is in an effort to spark a devastating conflagration.
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But certainly there’s no way that a law firm deeply ensconced within the administration, like, oh I don’t know, Jones Day, would try to capitalize on that with an ad campaign asymptotically approaching the appearance of influence-peddling! Indeed, just last month, in a Big Law Business podcast, Paul Barrett of Bloomberg Businessweek cited our own David Lat to assure everyone that no law firm would go down that road (around the 8:17 mark):
I think David is probably right that some clients will think they have an open line to the Trump administration via Jones Day. Of course, if Jones Day were to in any way cooperate with that, that would be entirely inappropriate and possibly illegal, if they basically sold their services as intermediaries to particular people in the Trump administration. So I think you may see some less sophisticated clients who would think that this is a good way to get an in with the administration, and more sophisticated clients would probably steer clear of that kind of thing.
Well, Jones Day has asked Barrett to hold its proverbial beer.
This ad, discussed in Politico this morning, is cropping up around the Internet:
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As Politico points out, former Jones Day partner Don McGahn is now White House Counsel, JD was paid $3.3 million in legal fees by the Trump campaign, and several other lawyers from the firm have moved over to the White House.
Now, in fairness to Jones Day, the firm doesn’t go so far as to say “our lawyers are all over this administration” in a way that conveys that Jones Day is in any way getting a sweetheart deal from the administration. Jones Day knows better than to make such a representation and — presumably — their former colleagues in positions of influence also know enough not to entangle themselves in improprieties. After all, as Politico notes, Jones Day does not lobby in Washington — yet — limiting the possible impact of these connections.
On the other hand, a firm that is all over the mainstream national media as the favored law firm of the Trump administration is now marketing itself as a firm that knows a lot about the Trump administration. It’s not like this ad touts the firm’s “top-notch regulatory practice,” it calls out their “insights on the new administration.” If you’re a client with the financial wherewithal to hire a firm like Jones Day, one would assume you’re savvy enough to connect the very thinly veiled dots.
Jones Day has insights into Energy policy? Could it have anything to do with Kevin McIntyre chairing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission? And those trade policy insights certainly have nothing to do with James Uthmeier serving as Special Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. Not to mention the veritable army of (inevitably temporarily) former Jones Day partners working the West Wing, the Justice Department, and various other agencies.
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It’s not like the revolving door is anything new. Debevoise is on the receiving end of the cycle right now. Some institutional clients are eager to work with a firm that they perceive as having an “in” with people of influence. But no one advertises it for a reason. As the Paul Barrett quote says, law firms historically work overtime to disabuse clients of these notions.
Jones Day has opted to flag them. Barrett thinks it’s the “less sophisticated clients” that think in these terms, and regardless of how they actually conduct their business, Jones Day is marketing itself to this lower common denominator. For a firm that’s faced a literal voter outcry over the perception that they’ve enriched themselves on taxpayer dimes, playing up the outsized influence of their old co-workers upon the administration is a bold look.
No, let’s go back to the first paragraph here: it’s not a bold look, it’s a tacky look. It’s a tacky, tasteless, bush league look.
But if we’ve learned anything in the last 100 days, it’s that negative attention is still attention, and that’s what really matters.
Tuesday’s Juice [Politico]
Inside Jones Day: Cleveland, 1893 to Donald Trump (Podcast) [Big Law Business]
Earlier: Jones Day In The (White) House: The Biglaw Firm Fills Top Jobs In The Trump Administration
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
