Arthur Liman was a Paul Weiss partner and its most distinguished lawyer. Yale Law School has a program on public law -- defending the weak -- in his memory.
"The authoritarians accept each capitulation and stay on the attack. They don’t rest."
This authoritarian "government" - cult actually - is different. Their "strength" is only in number - or "weight." If I may use another analogy, they're not hunters, who take risks. They're not even scavengers, which requires at least some proactive behavior. This "attack" is their "rest" state, doing what comes naturally, like a virus.
If the nazis had knocked on the door, and these lawyers had opened it, and they asked if Anne Frank was hiding somewhere, they would just point upstairs to the attic.
What Trump is doing here seems like blatant extortion. Seems that there should be consequences. Oh yeah, that’s laughable. Supremes demolished that concept. POTUS is above the law. We’re seeing in real time why that is dangerous as hell.
"Prestigious Law Firm" is an oxymoron. You will find exactly 0 partners at Paul Weiss who will resign because of this naked capitulation to the malignant narcissistic mendacious sociopath. Why? Because all the supposedly good press that the firm garnered was nothing more than a well written press release and stenographers in the media willing to print it.
None of these people give a tinker's dam about pro bono work, otherwise they would've told Donald Trump to go fuck himself. All of them are just like Trump. They are also malignant mendacious mercenaries. Nothing more.
If I were a client looking to pay a million or more to a high powered law firm to represent me in a high stakes court case brought by the government...would I even consider this firm any more? I mean if my case rubbed Trump the wrong way, how confident could I be that Paul Weiss would pull out all the stops to represent me fairly? At what point would they capitulate to him again and let his side win?
When Cortez got to Mexico he burned his ships so his men knew there was no going back, its was conquer and steal enormous wealth or die trying. Not long after J6th Lindsey Graham went back to support Trump and said he'll "either make us or break us"....meaning the Republican Party and "conservative politics." The way the American legal system works, Lawyers and Law Firms are part of the Judicial power. Interfering with that is like interfering in elections and not allowing robustly enabled political parties to compete freely. Or shareholders of Corporations for that matter. These are Constitutional rights and obligations under the 1st, 4th Amendments. This is bad. If Republican govern like this and allow these norms and laws to get broken like this...I mean we are already at the point where they will tell themselves they can never turn over power to the Democrats again.
Law firms line up in back of entertainment companies, news organizations, social media companies, high tech companies, the entire medical profession (where were they during the RFK, Jr, appointment?), and America's colleges and universities - all of which capitulated first. I don't understand why anyone would be surprised law firms are looking out for their best interests staring down the barrel of a vindictive autocracy.
Can anyone explain why the Democrats didn’t use the filibuster for any Trump nominees? Maybe they really didn’t want to do any of the work involved to push back on Trump at all. It is well past time for Schumer to step down.
It's an odd story, the Paul Weiss thing. On the one hand, Trump was for sure out of line. I can se why a lot of people wanted to see a big law firm stand up to the admin. On the other hand, if all Trump wanted was for them to re-assign some charitable donations to different charities, then... why fight that?
What? Trump actually said (paraphrase) that Paul Weiss had 'treated him badly and been mean to him and they had to pay a price for that' because one of their lawyers, Mark Pomeranze, had investigated him re his criminal business activity in NY. He said it. He said it at the same time he took away the firm's security clearances and their ability to enter federal buildings. How can you even think "all Trump wanted" was pro-bono work? He's got the entire federal justice system at his disposal for that.
He wanted revenge. He wanted to ruin them because they investigated him. But being the raging malignant narcissist he is, he couldn't resist when they cut off their balls and handed them to him on a platter.
If Republicans had stood together at any point in Trump’s psychotic trajectory from 2015 until now, they could have exiled him from politics for good.
If the Washington DC (can we still call it DC, or do we have to bow to Trump’s naming nonsense?) law firms had stood together instead of capitulating one by one, they could have fought Trump in court and come away winners. Because they are better than the few lawyers willing to work for this thoroughly, blatantly corrupt man.
If the corporate world - including media giants like Fox - had stood together when he attacks the press, they could have driven his poll numbers into liability territory.
Same point concerning Universities. Columbia University I’m sure has top notch lawyers. Trump’s extortion of Universities, like his extortion - not too strong a word here - of the law firms cannot be legal, and should have been fought from the beginning, tooth and nail. Yet the Universities are letting this shabby con artist extort the hell out of them.
The few heroes here are often women - Cassidy Hutchinson, Liz Cheney, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, others in the media like Nicole Wallace, and we know he’s threatening the media - and the judiciary…
So many rich and powerful men have slavishly bent the knee for this vindictive con artist…
When one enters Yad Vashem, early on in the exhibitions, is the pictorial and written exposition of Hitler’s rise to power. On one wall, there are names of judges and lawyers who supported the rise of the Third Reich. I guess I wasn’t shocked, though as an attorney, I was sickened. But, I felt a sense of, (oh no) “it could not happen here in the US.” Today I am shocked and sickened at the news about Paul Weiss, on many levels. A great firm, with many fabulous attorneys, will forevermore be on a wall of shame.
I recall that in 2021 there were still a few traditionalists who insisted, contrary to all evidence, that either James Buchanan or Richard Nixon was STILL the Worst President, and that our concerns about Trump were overblown.
I can only hope that during the last few months Trump has convinced any remaining holdouts that his grip on the title is ironclad and probably unshakeable.
Rich people don't denounce other rich people. Lawyers don't denounce other lawyers (I remember someone fairly prominent calling Dershowitz a "publicity whore," but...I mean, c'mon, it was Dershowitz). A few years ago Friend of the Pod Steve Vladeck had a podcast with Bobby Chesney, who is DEAN OF THE U-T LAW SCHOOL. Bobby was upset that Jones-Day was facing social opprobrium because of its involvement with Trump's election interference, and compared this to the social disapproval of defense lawyers. The difference, obvious to anyone who's not high on his own supply, is the Jones-Day was not defending a presumptively innocent Trump against accusations. It was helping an unethical client devise a dishonest strategy to accomplish an unconstitutional goal.
If you can't be as rich, as smart, as esteemed, and as well-dressed as the folks at Paul Weiss, what is the fucking point?
Arthur Liman was a Paul Weiss partner and its most distinguished lawyer. Yale Law School has a program on public law -- defending the weak -- in his memory.
https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/arthur-liman-center-public-interest-law/about
I knew Arthur Liman. Arthur Liman was a friend. Paul Weiss is fortunate that Arthur Liman is not with u. Arthur Liman would be pisssed.
"The authoritarians accept each capitulation and stay on the attack. They don’t rest."
This authoritarian "government" - cult actually - is different. Their "strength" is only in number - or "weight." If I may use another analogy, they're not hunters, who take risks. They're not even scavengers, which requires at least some proactive behavior. This "attack" is their "rest" state, doing what comes naturally, like a virus.
If the nazis had knocked on the door, and these lawyers had opened it, and they asked if Anne Frank was hiding somewhere, they would just point upstairs to the attic.
What Trump is doing here seems like blatant extortion. Seems that there should be consequences. Oh yeah, that’s laughable. Supremes demolished that concept. POTUS is above the law. We’re seeing in real time why that is dangerous as hell.
"Prestigious Law Firm" is an oxymoron. You will find exactly 0 partners at Paul Weiss who will resign because of this naked capitulation to the malignant narcissistic mendacious sociopath. Why? Because all the supposedly good press that the firm garnered was nothing more than a well written press release and stenographers in the media willing to print it.
None of these people give a tinker's dam about pro bono work, otherwise they would've told Donald Trump to go fuck himself. All of them are just like Trump. They are also malignant mendacious mercenaries. Nothing more.
Pro bono for the Trump/Musk crime family.
Re Paul Weiss
Is it just me or is this a thing:
If I were a client looking to pay a million or more to a high powered law firm to represent me in a high stakes court case brought by the government...would I even consider this firm any more? I mean if my case rubbed Trump the wrong way, how confident could I be that Paul Weiss would pull out all the stops to represent me fairly? At what point would they capitulate to him again and let his side win?
When Cortez got to Mexico he burned his ships so his men knew there was no going back, its was conquer and steal enormous wealth or die trying. Not long after J6th Lindsey Graham went back to support Trump and said he'll "either make us or break us"....meaning the Republican Party and "conservative politics." The way the American legal system works, Lawyers and Law Firms are part of the Judicial power. Interfering with that is like interfering in elections and not allowing robustly enabled political parties to compete freely. Or shareholders of Corporations for that matter. These are Constitutional rights and obligations under the 1st, 4th Amendments. This is bad. If Republican govern like this and allow these norms and laws to get broken like this...I mean we are already at the point where they will tell themselves they can never turn over power to the Democrats again.
Law firms line up in back of entertainment companies, news organizations, social media companies, high tech companies, the entire medical profession (where were they during the RFK, Jr, appointment?), and America's colleges and universities - all of which capitulated first. I don't understand why anyone would be surprised law firms are looking out for their best interests staring down the barrel of a vindictive autocracy.
Can anyone explain why the Democrats didn’t use the filibuster for any Trump nominees? Maybe they really didn’t want to do any of the work involved to push back on Trump at all. It is well past time for Schumer to step down.
It's an odd story, the Paul Weiss thing. On the one hand, Trump was for sure out of line. I can se why a lot of people wanted to see a big law firm stand up to the admin. On the other hand, if all Trump wanted was for them to re-assign some charitable donations to different charities, then... why fight that?
Charities, from Trump. Do you not recall he was sued and lost over a false charity?
What? Trump actually said (paraphrase) that Paul Weiss had 'treated him badly and been mean to him and they had to pay a price for that' because one of their lawyers, Mark Pomeranze, had investigated him re his criminal business activity in NY. He said it. He said it at the same time he took away the firm's security clearances and their ability to enter federal buildings. How can you even think "all Trump wanted" was pro-bono work? He's got the entire federal justice system at his disposal for that.
He wanted revenge. He wanted to ruin them because they investigated him. But being the raging malignant narcissist he is, he couldn't resist when they cut off their balls and handed them to him on a platter.
If Republicans had stood together at any point in Trump’s psychotic trajectory from 2015 until now, they could have exiled him from politics for good.
If the Washington DC (can we still call it DC, or do we have to bow to Trump’s naming nonsense?) law firms had stood together instead of capitulating one by one, they could have fought Trump in court and come away winners. Because they are better than the few lawyers willing to work for this thoroughly, blatantly corrupt man.
If the corporate world - including media giants like Fox - had stood together when he attacks the press, they could have driven his poll numbers into liability territory.
Same point concerning Universities. Columbia University I’m sure has top notch lawyers. Trump’s extortion of Universities, like his extortion - not too strong a word here - of the law firms cannot be legal, and should have been fought from the beginning, tooth and nail. Yet the Universities are letting this shabby con artist extort the hell out of them.
The few heroes here are often women - Cassidy Hutchinson, Liz Cheney, Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, others in the media like Nicole Wallace, and we know he’s threatening the media - and the judiciary…
So many rich and powerful men have slavishly bent the knee for this vindictive con artist…
When one enters Yad Vashem, early on in the exhibitions, is the pictorial and written exposition of Hitler’s rise to power. On one wall, there are names of judges and lawyers who supported the rise of the Third Reich. I guess I wasn’t shocked, though as an attorney, I was sickened. But, I felt a sense of, (oh no) “it could not happen here in the US.” Today I am shocked and sickened at the news about Paul Weiss, on many levels. A great firm, with many fabulous attorneys, will forevermore be on a wall of shame.
I recall that in 2021 there were still a few traditionalists who insisted, contrary to all evidence, that either James Buchanan or Richard Nixon was STILL the Worst President, and that our concerns about Trump were overblown.
I can only hope that during the last few months Trump has convinced any remaining holdouts that his grip on the title is ironclad and probably unshakeable.
Rich people don't denounce other rich people. Lawyers don't denounce other lawyers (I remember someone fairly prominent calling Dershowitz a "publicity whore," but...I mean, c'mon, it was Dershowitz). A few years ago Friend of the Pod Steve Vladeck had a podcast with Bobby Chesney, who is DEAN OF THE U-T LAW SCHOOL. Bobby was upset that Jones-Day was facing social opprobrium because of its involvement with Trump's election interference, and compared this to the social disapproval of defense lawyers. The difference, obvious to anyone who's not high on his own supply, is the Jones-Day was not defending a presumptively innocent Trump against accusations. It was helping an unethical client devise a dishonest strategy to accomplish an unconstitutional goal.
If you can't be as rich, as smart, as esteemed, and as well-dressed as the folks at Paul Weiss, what is the fucking point?
Couldn't help but note that at the end of Sam's piece about this (https://www.thebulwark.com/p/disgusted-betrayed-paul-weiss-extortion-executive-order-trump-lawyers-firm-karp-perkins-coie-rachel-cohen), it's once again a woman who's willing to publicly stand in opposition.
If we make it out of this, it will be because of women leading the way.
https://www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/how-democracy-survives-through-elevating?r=1ibbb0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Once again, it turns out the only real man in the room was a young woman. Land of the free, home of the brave? What a load of BS.