First They Came for the Cowards
When I read about the capitulation to President Trump by the big law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, I couldn’t help thinking about the capitulation of lawyers in countries like Germany and Chile.
Paul Weiss is based in Washington, D.C., and employs around 1,000 lawyers. Its income last year was around $2.6 billion. Upset that the firm had taken positions not to his liking, Trump targeted the firm with an executive order stating that “the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and all other relevant heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall immediately take steps consistent with applicable law to suspend any active security clearances held by individuals at Paul Weiss and Mark Pomerantz, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
Moreover, Trump’s order provided that “the heads of all agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide guidance limiting official access from Federal Government buildings to employees of Paul Weiss when such access would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States.”
Notwithstanding the fact that Paul Weiss is a private entity, Trump’s order also complained of the firm’s hiring practices, which were purportedly based on “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Needless to say, Trump’s order, if permitted to stand, was going to have a deleterious effect on the financial well-being of the firm.
Paul Weiss could have chosen to fight. It certainly had the financial resources to do so. It had the right to file suit in federal court to seek a judicial declaration that Trump’s actions were illegal, malicious, vicious, retaliatory, and unconstitutional.
Paul Weiss instead reached out to Trump and struck a deal, one in which the firm agreed to provide Trump with $40 million — yes, $40 million! — in free legal services in the future for causes that are near and dear to Trump’s heart. According to the New York Times, the firm also agreed to “merits-based hiring, promotion and retention” and said it would hire an outside expert, within 14 days, to conduct “a comprehensive audit of all its employment practices.”
In return, Trump issue a new executive order cancelling his previous executive order.
People’s Court Judge Roland Freisler in the middle. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
In Germany under the Nazis, lawyers also capitulated. Of course, their capitulation went further than Paul Weiss’s capitulation. Succumbing to the threats and intimidation of Hitler and his goons, the cowardice of German lawyers caused them to sacrifice the interests of their clients who Hitler and his goons were targeting with “crimes.” The cowardice and servili
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