{"id":112208,"date":"2025-03-27T15:58:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T23:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/27\/skadden-seeks-cowards-deal-with-trump-administration\/"},"modified":"2025-03-27T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T23:58:26","slug":"skadden-seeks-cowards-deal-with-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/27\/skadden-seeks-cowards-deal-with-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Skadden Seeks Coward\u2019s Deal With Trump Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by David Becker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fresh off shadow president Elon Musk\u2019s chilling warning<\/a> to Skadden Arps, the New York Times is reporting <\/a>the #5 richest Biglaw firm is in the midst of negotiating a deal with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

The Times says Skadden is seeking to avoid one of the increasingly common<\/a> Executive Orders targeting Biglaw, and the tremendous harm<\/a> that can bring. While many firms are trying to lay low<\/a> to avoid the attention of Trump, Skadden\u2019s pro bono<\/em> work against Dinesh D\u2019Souza\u2019s \u201c2000 Mules\u201d (a film and book that contains\u00a0widely debunked<\/a>\u00a0conspiracy theories about the 2020 election) has already garnered attention.<\/p>\n

Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp has already kissed the ring<\/a> of Donald Trump to get out from under an EO. The backlash<\/a> to Paul Weiss\u2019s deal with the Trump administration has been swift, with many questioning the firm\u2019s ability<\/a> to zealously advocate on behalf of their own clients \u2014 particularly if their clients<\/a> find themselves targeted by Trump.<\/p>\n

The precise terms of the discussions or what Skadden may ultimately agree to are unknown. But the mere existence of the talks is a major development and signals how little appetite there is in some corners of Biglaw to defend the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\n

The talks represent an extraordinary turn in Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign against law firms and the legal system more broadly, marking what appears to be the first time that a major firm has tried to cut a deal with the president before he could issue an executive order. Recent orders targeting other law firms have restricted the work they can do with the federal government.<\/p>\n

The Skadden discussions are also the latest example of how large law firms, afraid of a protracted battle with Mr. Trump, are eager to strike deals. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There are also reports of other Biglaw firms seeking similar preemptive deals amidst Trump crowing about his power over some of the largest law firms in the nation.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Skadden Seeks Coward\u2019s Deal With Trump Administration<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by David Becker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fresh off shadow president Elon Musk\u2019s chilling warning<\/a> to Skadden Arps, the New York Times is reporting <\/a>the #5 richest Biglaw firm is in the midst of negotiating a deal with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

The Times says Skadden is seeking to avoid one of the increasingly common<\/a> Executive Orders targeting Biglaw, and the tremendous harm<\/a> that can bring. While many firms are trying to lay low<\/a> to avoid the attention of Trump, Skadden\u2019s pro bono<\/em> work against Dinesh D\u2019Souza\u2019s \u201c2000 Mules\u201d (a film and book that contains\u00a0widely debunked<\/a>\u00a0conspiracy theories about the 2020 election) has already garnered attention.<\/p>\n

Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp has already kissed the ring<\/a> of Donald Trump to get out from under an EO. The backlash<\/a> to Paul Weiss\u2019s deal with the Trump administration has been swift, with many questioning the firm\u2019s ability<\/a> to zealously advocate on behalf of their own clients \u2014 particularly if their clients<\/a> find themselves targeted by Trump.<\/p>\n

The precise terms of the discussions or what Skadden may ultimately agree to are unknown. But the mere existence of the talks is a major development and signals how little appetite there is in some corners of Biglaw to defend the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\n

The talks represent an extraordinary turn in Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign against law firms and the legal system more broadly, marking what appears to be the first time that a major firm has tried to cut a deal with the president before he could issue an executive order. Recent orders targeting other law firms have restricted the work they can do with the federal government.<\/p>\n

The Skadden discussions are also the latest example of how large law firms, afraid of a protracted battle with Mr. Trump, are eager to strike deals. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There are also reports of other Biglaw firms seeking similar preemptive deals amidst Trump crowing about his power over some of the largest law firms in the nation.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by David Becker\/Getty Images) Fresh off shadow president Elon Musk\u2019s chilling warning to Skadden Arps, the New York Times is reporting the #5 richest Biglaw firm is in the midst of negotiating a deal with the Trump administration. The Times says Skadden is seeking to avoid one of the increasingly common Executive Orders targeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":112209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-GmEIKl.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}