{"id":113871,"date":"2025-04-07T13:03:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T21:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/07\/paul-weiss-partner-event-highlights-the-blow-its-taken\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T13:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T21:03:22","slug":"paul-weiss-partner-event-highlights-the-blow-its-taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/07\/paul-weiss-partner-event-highlights-the-blow-its-taken\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Weiss Partner Event Highlights The Blow It\u2019s Taken"},"content":{"rendered":"

[UPDATE: Paul Weiss has reached out to say this meeting is unrelated to the Executive Order settlement, but rather part of the 2025 Antitrust Spring Meeting. The firm says there was no \u201cmorale\u201d aspect to the event.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Paul Weiss isn\u2019t the only law firm scrambling to trade its credibility for Trump\u2019s approval<\/a>, it was the first<\/a> to give the administration a big, splashy capitulation to crow about \u2014 a head on a pike to post outside the White House walls to exact even higher pro bono payola concessions<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that other firms would have still caved rather than join Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale in fighting back against the illegal, retaliatory executive orders the administration keeps pumping out\u2026 but all we know for sure is that no one surrendered until Paul Weiss set the bar and everyone who has since followed the broad outline set by Paul Weiss.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath, I wondered<\/a> if there might be some hefty books of business within Paul Weiss who aren\u2019t happy about all this. It looks like that might be the case, as an eagle-eyed tipster spotted this on Friday at the Conrad in D.C.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHello, my name is Bob, and I\u2019m an unwillingly complicit party in the erosion of rule of law\u2026.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whoever set up the meeting probably didn\u2019t want the hotel to provide such a detailed description \u2014 at least not on a clearly visible sign. No word yet on what went down inside. Did they light some candles and hug it out? Maybe a few trust falls and therapy puppies? <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the client timekeeping code for emotional support meetings? Probably 90000 \u201cProfessional Development,\u201d matter 050 \u201cExistential Dread.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this does lend credence to the theory that the firm\u2019s partnership might include more than a few lawyers who aren\u2019t pleased about the firm\u2019s name becoming a punchline:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Jim Cramer on CNBC said that the White House may think that “you can roll China like you rolled Paul Weiss.”whelp.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-04-07T13:12:36.583Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

If there\u2019s a lowest circle of reputational hell for a white-shoe law firm, it\u2019s being invoked \u2014 casually and without irony \u2014 by Jim Cramer as the<\/em> example of corporate cowardice. The stock market is in the middle of a Great Depression-level crash and CNBC is still finding a way to work Paul Weiss into the story!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s losing a PR battle and then there\u2019s whatever legacy-defining public relations chest wound this is for Paul Weiss.<\/p>\n

[UPDATE: If it\u2019s true that this wasn\u2019t intended to have anything to do with the Executive Order, it underscores the unforced reputational error the firm\u2019s settlement caused. Before we posted this story, the image also appeared on Reddit with over a thousand upvotes and a spirited round of dunking in the comments. Had this image appeared a year ago no one would\u2019ve said anything, but the firm has now positioned itself \u2014 especially as folks leave settling firms in public and private ways \u2014 such that events like these are an optics nightmare.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Paul Weiss Partner Event Highlights The Blow It\u2019s Taken<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[UPDATE: Paul Weiss has reached out to say this meeting is unrelated to the Executive Order settlement, but rather part of the 2025 Antitrust Spring Meeting. The firm says there was no \u201cmorale\u201d aspect to the event.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Paul Weiss isn\u2019t the only law firm scrambling to trade its credibility for Trump\u2019s approval<\/a>, it was the first<\/a> to give the administration a big, splashy capitulation to crow about \u2014 a head on a pike to post outside the White House walls to exact even higher pro bono payola concessions<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that other firms would have still caved rather than join Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale in fighting back against the illegal, retaliatory executive orders the administration keeps pumping out\u2026 but all we know for sure is that no one surrendered until Paul Weiss set the bar and everyone who has since followed the broad outline set by Paul Weiss.<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath, I wondered<\/a> if there might be some hefty books of business within Paul Weiss who aren\u2019t happy about all this. It looks like that might be the case, as an eagle-eyed tipster spotted this on Friday at the Conrad in D.C.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHello, my name is Bob, and I\u2019m an unwillingly complicit party in the erosion of rule of law\u2026.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whoever set up the meeting probably didn\u2019t want the hotel to provide such a detailed description \u2014 at least not on a clearly visible sign. No word yet on what went down inside. Did they light some candles and hug it out? Maybe a few trust falls and therapy puppies? <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the client timekeeping code for emotional support meetings? Probably 90000 \u201cProfessional Development,\u201d matter 050 \u201cExistential Dread.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this does lend credence to the theory that the firm\u2019s partnership might include more than a few lawyers who aren\u2019t pleased about the firm\u2019s name becoming a punchline:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Jim Cramer on CNBC said that the White House may think that “you can roll China like you rolled Paul Weiss.”whelp.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-04-07T13:12:36.583Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

If there\u2019s a lowest circle of reputational hell for a white-shoe law firm, it\u2019s being invoked \u2014 casually and without irony \u2014 by Jim Cramer as the<\/em> example of corporate cowardice. The stock market is in the middle of a Great Depression-level crash and CNBC is still finding a way to work Paul Weiss into the story!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s losing a PR battle and then there\u2019s whatever legacy-defining public relations chest wound this is for Paul Weiss.<\/p>\n

[UPDATE: If it\u2019s true that this wasn\u2019t intended to have anything to do with the Executive Order, it underscores the unforced reputational error the firm\u2019s settlement caused. Before we posted this story, the image also appeared on Reddit with over a thousand upvotes and a spirited round of dunking in the comments. Had this image appeared a year ago no one would\u2019ve said anything, but the firm has now positioned itself \u2014 especially as folks leave settling firms in public and private ways \u2014 such that events like these are an optics nightmare.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Paul Weiss Partner Event Highlights The Blow It\u2019s Taken<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[UPDATE: Paul Weiss has reached out to say this meeting is unrelated to the Executive Order settlement, but rather part of the 2025 Antitrust Spring Meeting. The firm says there was no \u201cmorale\u201d aspect to the event.] While Paul Weiss isn\u2019t the only law firm scrambling to trade its credibility for Trump\u2019s approval, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113872,"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-113871","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\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-07-at-8.45.22E280AFAM-0yhNuj.png?fit=716%2C830&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113871","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=113871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}