Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson, Jessica Phillips, and Jeannie Rhee made headlines when they left Paul, Weiss. Their (now former) Biglaw home inked a coward’s deal with Donald Trump to get out from under an onerous Executive Order rather than fight the unconstitutional EO in court. So, they picked up their ball and bat — or books of business — and started a brand new firm, unencumbered by the terms of capitulation.
Since they announced their new firm (at the PW partners meeting, no less!) they’ve been collecting litigators (a number of which also spent time working at Boies Schiller, like the name partners). And last week they added another skilled litigator in the form of Meryl Governski. Like many joining Dunn Isaacson Rhee, Governski most recently worked at a firm that signed a deal with Trump, this time Willkie Farr.
Willkie has already lost a number of litigators because of their capitulation to Trump. But, as reported by Reuters, Willkie partner Michael Gottlieb (who has worked with Governski on a number of high-profile representations including Drake, Blake Lively and the Georgia poll workers who successfully sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation) had a different spin on the departure, chalking it up to the time Governski spent working at Boies Schiller:
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Willkie partner Michael Gottlieb in a statement said the firm hoped to continue working with Governski at her new firm. He said it was “completely unsurprising” that she would want to reunite with her former Boies Schiller colleagues.
Interesting take. But my hunch is that if Willkie held strong and defended the rule of law, they’d still have Governski on their roll.
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].
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