Peter Kalis, the outgoing chair at K&L Gates, is not one to mince words. The former Rhodes Scholar and Supreme Court clerk is both brilliant and blunt, and you can see that when he’s smacking down his adversaries or exhorting his partners to bring home the bacon.
But this outspoken firm leader seems less enthusiastic about his lawyers expressing themselves. From a firm-wide memo he just circulated:
My colleague Joe Patrice’s take: “Want to have an opinion at K&L Gates? All you need to do is serve as Attorney General!”
The scope of Kalis’s request is unclear. He wants lawyers to “refrain from any public comment on the nominee,” so that would cover, say, writing op-eds for or against confirmation, or speaking to a reporter if called for comment. It would not cover private discussion, such as a conversation with friends over dinner.
But what about the grey area of social media? A K&L Gates lawyer on Twitter or Facebook could certainly generate “quotes that could be used against us and our clients in some perverse way.” On the other hand, asking lawyers to censor themselves about a major legal and political issue seems a bit extreme.
Here’s what one K&L Gates tipster told us:
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Grumpy Ol’ Pete is (a) impugning our attorneys’ collective intelligence; (b) seemingly tipping that it is going to be Hardiman (because he’s from Pittsburgh, and we’re Pittsburgh-headquartered); and (c) stifling the expression of free speech, by some of the few people educated and qualified on whether a nominee should or should not be appointed. #JustKalisThings
Ouch. It seems this source is not a fan of the Kalis memo.
In defense of Kalis, maximizing profit might call for minimizing opinion and controversy. Note how another Biglaw firm, Greenberg Traurig, recently distanced itself from the polarizing outside activities of cybersecurity practice head Rudy Giuliani.
Here at Above the Law, it’s tough for us to dodge controversy. We get complaints from conservative readers about our liberal writers, and complaints from liberal readers about our conservative writers. Given that we’re in the media business, we can’t avoid speaking our minds; it’s our job (which is why it’s hard for us to accede to Steve Bannon’s request that we shut up). But if we sold a more apolitical product — like bananas, or billable hours — I could see the argument in favor of not ticking off a significant portion of the customer base.
UPDATE (5:45 p.m.): From a second source:
As a K&L lawyer in the Seattle office (coastal elite bubble!), several of us have remarked that a similar memo was not distributed to all lawyers for any of Barack Obama’s SCOTUS nominees. This has been making the associate rounds, and we can only intuit why….
Earlier: Peter Kalis Won’t Run For Re-Election As Chair Of K&L Gates
Everything Is Great, K&L States: Peter Kalis Comes Out Swinging
The Two Faces of K&L Gates
Greenberg Traurig Distances Itself From Rudy Giuliani
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].