In a post some might consider slightly snarky, David Post at Volokh Conspiracy refuses to let the next shoe drop without mention. This time, it’s the law firm of Jenner & Block. David prefaces his post with an important note.

Given that the VC is a blog that is heavily focused on the law and the legal profession in all of its various manifestations, I think it is incumbent upon us to at least pay a little bit of attention to the Trump Administration’s continuing attacks on lawyers and judges, if only to ensure that our silence is not construed as capitulation.  So no, I’m not going to let it go – no one’s forcing you to read anything I write. 

Same here. SJ is also a law blog, though I might have digressed slightly into political issues of late given their overlap, but if lawyers and judges don’t pay attention to Trump’s use of Executive Proclamations to crush his lawyer enemies, we won’t be there when you need us.

As David notes, the Biglaw firm of Paul Weiss has capitulated to Trump’s overwhelming power and might, with its managing partner, Brad Karp, dropping to his knees and opening his mouth as wide as he could to bring succor to the victor.

The punishment that was meted out to Paul Weiss last week for having “hired unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz [who] according to his coworkers, unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate President Trump” while at the Manhattan DA’s office has been rescinded! The Executive Order has been withdrawn! All it took, apparently, was $40 million in pro bono legal assistance for Trump-endorsed causes – cheap!!

Of course, the money was never the point (though I am surprised Trump couldn’t extort a few million more; I bet Paul Weiss would have paid another $50 million for, say, a statue of Trump somewhere, or a nice fat contribution to the DJT Family Foundation).  The point is obedience, about sending the message: “I can crush you, big powerful law firm, like a bug, so don’t fuck with me.” Mission accomplished.

But Trump has other enemies in the law who need to be brought to their knees, and former AUSA, FBI general counsel, Mueller prosecutor and MSNBC stalwart, Andrew Weissmann, needed to be taken down. Personally, I’m not a fan of Weissmann, primarily due to his playing “hide the Brady” as an Eastern District of New York AUSA. I’m similarly unimpressed with his TV legal commentary, which tended to ignore the nuances and details of law in favor of backing whatever narrative was being pushed at any given moment. But he apparently hurt Trump’s feelz so badly that Trump decided to take it out on the last law firm he worked for, Jenner & Block.

In addition, Jenner was “thrilled” to re-hire the unethical Andrew Weissmann after his time engaging in partisan prosecution as part of Robert Mueller’s entirely unjustified investigation.  Andrew Weissmann’s career has been rooted in weaponized government and abuse of power, including devastating tens of thousands of American families who worked for the now defunct Arthur Andersen LLP, only to have his unlawfully aggressive prosecution overturned by the Supreme Court.  The numerous reports of Weissman’s dishonesty, including pursuit of nonexistent crimes, bribery to foreign nationals, and overt demand that the Federal Government pursue a political agenda against me, is a concerning indictment of Jenner’s values and priorities.

What does David Post think about this presidential condemnation?

Whoa! Those are some really bad guys!  Another firm that re-hired an “unethical” attorney, about whom there have been “numerous reports of dishonesty”!  Unbelievable! I’m surprised that Our Leader, who can, by Executive Order, do pretty much anything he damn pleases, doesn’t just toss the lot of them into the slammer.  But at least I’ll sleep much more soundly knowing that those bastards don’t have any more contracts with the federal government and that their employees are frozen out of federal buildings.

Why David dismissed the possibility of extraordinary rendition to a Salvadorean prison, I can’t say. But from here, I’m inclined to agree with one, though only one, point made by the deeply empathetic Paul Weiss managing partner, Brad Karp.

We were hopeful that the legal industry would rally to our side, even though it had not done so in response to executive orders targeting other firms. We had tried to persuade other firms to come out in public support of Covington and Perkins Coie. And we waited for firms to support us in the wake of the President’s executive order targeting Paul, Weiss. Disappointingly, far from support, we learned that certain other firms were seeking to exploit our vulnerabilities by aggressively soliciting our clients and recruiting our attorneys.

When Trump issued his EOs against Covington and Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss didn’t go public with any condemnation. Karp claims he “tried to persuade other firms” to do so, but was too cowardly to do it himself, alone, without the cover of the Biglaw universe joining in. For those of us who aren’t Biglaw, this comes as no surprise. It similarly comes as no surprise that they would rather exploit the opportunity to steal clients than do the right thing, because there’s no quick and easy money to be made doing the right thing.

For years, small firms and sole practitioners have competed with Biglaw firms in the representation of corporations and officers in financial criminal cases, so called “white collar” crimes. Biglaw defense lawyers are mostly former prosecutors, who prefer not to get their hands dirty actually defending the accused. Their claim was that their size and heft enabled them to handle big cases and carry sway with the government.

My counterargument was that  too often, they never stopped being prosecutors and were highly adept at losing and compromising rather than fighting and winning. Now it appears that they don’t even have the guts to fight for themselves and their continued existence, but I will still fight for them because it’s the right thing to do.

Update: WilmerHale is the next victim, having employed Bob Mueller, and according to the New York Times, Skadden is negotiating with Trump to cut a deal to avoid an EO against it.

But on Wednesday, the president hinted that such deals might emerge and boasted about his track record of bringing big law firms to heel.

“They’re all bending and saying, ‘Sir, thank you very much,’” Mr. Trump said, adding that law firms are saying, “‘Where do I sign? Where do I sign?’”

Somewhere, Roy Cohn is smiling.