When the nine Biglaw firms that struck deals with Donald Trump in order to avoid his punitive Executive Orders designed to extract a financial penalty, they probably *thought* they were acting in their own self interest. So they agreed to Trump’s terms — offering almost a billion dollars in pro bono payola to causes of Trump’s choosing — selling out the rule of the law in the process. What a deliciously ironic twist that those deals may turn out to *not* be in their best interest.
Congressional Democrats are on the firms’ back about the deals. Then there’s the way many clients see the deals as a weakness and, increasingly, are pulling work away from the firms that have demonstrated they are unwilling to take a legal fight to the Trump administration. There’s the way attorneys are leaving the firms that caved to Trump, hoping to get the stink of capitulation off their resumes. A Biglaw firm’s two biggest assets are clients and attorneys, so those Trump deals are really hitting firms where it matters most.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Cadwalader, the oldest continuing Wall Street law firm is feeling the sting of the deal. Cadwalader found themselves in the Trump crosshairs not for cases they *did* take but for one specific one they didn’t. Former Cadwalader partner Todd Blanche disagreed with his onetime partners about taking the Trump criminal case, and that apparently angered the president. When the firm finalized their Trump deal on April 11 –pledging $100 million in pro bono payola — they were already seeing some noteworthy attorney departures. But now it’s supercharged.
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The agreement now is pushing more lawyers to leave, people familiar with the matter said, spurred by anger that the firm capitulated to Trump instead of fighting back against an administration campaign that many in the industry believe to be unconstitutional.
A key partner in the firm’s litigation group is in late-stage talks to join a boutique firm and several other litigators are planning an exit, the people said. J.B. Howard, who is counsel at the firm and a former Maryland deputy attorney general, is also leaving and sent a letter to firm leadership protesting its capitulation, people familiar with his departure said.
Indeed, Howard’s resignation letter to the firm’s managing partner Pat Quinn, sent in the immediate aftermath of the deal, is full of the bold rhetoric in defense of the rule of law that has come to typify the spate of resignations over the Trump deal:
“When I was admitted to the bar, I swore an oath not only to support the Constitution and the laws of the United States and Maryland, but also, critically, to ‘uphold the honor and dignity of the legal profession.’ In my view, society licenses us with the privilege of practicing law, and of earning a livelihood from the practice of law, in exchange for a solemn and nonnegotiable commitment to preserve and fight for our system of laws, without which lawyers have no purpose or reason to exist.
“The legal profession, the courts, and the rule of law are now under direct attack from a lawless administration determined to gut them. Can any serious person argue otherwise? The individual and institutional price we lawyers will have to pay, and the sacrifices we will have to make, to hold the line against this aggression may be enormous, but I view them as commitments we made when we became lawyers. I believe we either pay the price and fight or we forfeit our license and moral right to practice law.
“True, some have fiduciary duties to their law firms in the face of an arguably existential threat. But I believe we have a prior, and more fundamental, fiduciary duty to society to defend the rule of law, which itself faces an existential threat. . . . In my view, the deals now being cut are only emboldening that regime and further empowering it as, literally day by day, it gains more ground. I do not believe I can carry on at the firm knowing that I am now, in a sense, a party to one of these deals.”
When asked for comment, a firm spokesman downplayed anything was unusual about the exodus, “Departures can be tough,” he said. He continued, “Some attrition is normal and expected; it is part of the typical rhythm of a successful firm.” The firm also played up their strong 2024 financial performance and the belief that will continue through 2025. But to paraphrase the Countess Luann, money can’t buy you principles.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].