""It was weak, it was cowardly, it was craven for Paul Weiss to do it at the beginning and sort of send a signal to the other firms that this is what we're doing," Bonta said. "We're doing deals, we're caving, we're bending the knee.""
"He wasn't subtle about the firm he sees as Patient Zero: Paul, Weiss, the first Biglaw shop to decide that fighting an unlawful executive order was just too stressful. Better to offer up pro bono payola, that is free legal services for conservative clients and causes favored by Donald Trump, in exchange for regulatory peace."
"Bonta, notably, is not speaking from some abstract, academic perch. California has filed roughly 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, and the state legislature handed Bonta $25 million last year specifically to keep suing. While Biglaw firms were tripping over themselves to make deals, California was doing what lawyers are theoretically supposed to do when faced with unconstitutional government action: litigate."
Nine large law firms made deals with the Trump administration that traded pro bono legal services for regulatory relief from executive orders. Many of those executive orders were repeatedly found unconstitutional by federal judges, and some deals sought relief from merely the threat of an order. Paul, Weiss moved first, offering pro bono representation to conservative clients in return for forbearance, and other firms followed. The arrangements prompted criticism for appearing to prioritize regulatory peace over litigation, while California pursued roughly fifty lawsuits and dedicated funding to continue challenging the administration in court.
Read at Above the Law
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