A few weeks ago, former fifth-year associate went on LinkedIn and accused Covington of racial harassment. Now, he appears in an Instagram video detained by law enforcement as part of Trump’s D.C. takeover.
Paul Bryant claimed that a partner in the D.C. office called him a racial slur as part of a campaign to convince him to quit after he informed the firm that he would no longer work on SEC disclosures for “anti-minority and anti-women based initiatives.” Which, to be honest, have almost certainly seen an uptick since the White House started threatening ESG initiatives with legal action and businesses decided that retrograde policies might garner some goodwill with the administration. Covington denied the racial harassment ever happened, while Bryant sought a $30 million settlement in now-deleted social media posts.
In those posts, he also put his faith in Donald Trump, stating “I will solicit the help of the President, Donald J. Trump to strike an adequate deal with Covington… It is actually my faith that the Commander-In-Chief will hear of this story and provide the leverage I need to effect needed change in your system, a system which the President has rightfully began to investigate.” As the rambling, bloated impetus of the very anti-minority and anti-women based initiatives at issue, Trump was a curious choice as a potential savior.
The Law Firm’s Guide To Trust Accounting And Three-Way Reconciliation
Proper trust accounting and three-way reconciliation are essential for protecting client funds and avoiding serious compliance risks. In this guide, we break down these critical processes and show how legal-specific software can help your firm stay accurate, efficient, and audit-ready.
Now, Bryant might be prepared to recognize that Trump may actually be responsible for all this.
The video shows Bryant declaring that he intends to press charges against the officers holding him. The video cuts in after he’s already being held, so we only have his account of the matter, which is that he was walking down the street when roughly 20 cops/feds/troops/etc. stopped him. While he states that the police wouldn’t explain the potential charges, the video suggests they were trying for some sort of gun charge, because Bryant explains for the record that his magazine is in the trunk of his car. As a former Army officer, he understands how to responsibly handle firearms, and as a lawyer he understands the significance of making sure his ammunition is locked away from his weapon.
We already know the D.C. surge is playing fast and loose with the constitutionality of gun searches right now. Based solely on this video, Bryant looks to have been swept up in that trend.
“This is what calling out a failed system looks like,” Bryant says in the clip. Whether or not it’s what “calling it out” looks like, this is exactly what a failed system looks like. A former Army officer and Columbia-trained attorney who, regardless of the specific allegations against Covington, felt genuinely unable to ethically perform his job because of an intimidation campaign being either waged upon or smugly acquiesced to by corporate America. Unable to continue in Biglaw, now he’s being swarmed by an occupying force — who are actively concealing their identities per the video — patrolling the streets over what seems to be a gun charge sent by a political movement that prides itself on fighting against any and all gun regulations!
The lax access to guns being, of course, the reason D.C. got so dangerous in the first place. Just a vicious cycle of policy failure designed to break people.
Bryant says in the video that he plans to press charges for the violation of his civil rights.
Earlier: Former Biglaw Associate Alleges Partner Used Racial Slur
Joe Patrice is a senior 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 or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.