{"id":122475,"date":"2025-06-09T12:02:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/09\/partners-are-running-from-the-stink-of-paul-weisss-capitulation\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T12:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:02:57","slug":"partners-are-running-from-the-stink-of-paul-weisss-capitulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/09\/partners-are-running-from-the-stink-of-paul-weisss-capitulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Partners Are Running From The Stink Of Paul, Weiss\u2019s Capitulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul, Weiss shocked the world of Biglaw<\/a> in March when they became the first<\/a> \u2014 though not the last<\/a> \u2014 firm to bend a knee to Donald Trump to get out from under an\u00a0onerous Executive Order<\/a> designed to\u00a0extract a financial penalty\u00a0<\/a>for being affiliated with cases and causes that displeased the president. Since then, the firm has been experiencing the consequences of their actions \u2014 the deal with Trump keeps getting worse<\/a>, there\u2019ve been congressional investigations<\/a>, client concerns<\/a>, and so many lawyers bailing<\/a> on the firm<\/a> to distance themselves<\/a> from the craven capitulation.<\/p>\n

Over the last few days, the talent loss at Paul, Weiss has seen a noticeable uptick. On Friday, Damian Williams, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced<\/a> he was leaving the cowardly Paul, Weiss. Williams\u2019s new Biglaw home? Jenner & Block<\/a> \u2014 one of the four Biglaw firm fighting the Trump Biglaw executive orders in court. And\u2026 that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about what Williams thinks about making a deal with Trump.<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the only noteworthy recent partner departure. Three litigation partners: Melissa Zappala, Rush Atkinson (who worked on the Mueller investigation), and Kyle Smith are dipping from Paul, Weiss and heading to the new litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee. <\/p>\n

Dunn Isaacson Rhee was recently formed by four now-former Paul, Weiss partners looking to practice law free from the shadow of the Trump deal. <\/a>In addition to the seven partners, three associates \u2014 Erica Spevack, Lyle Gruby, and Leah Hibbler \u2014 have joined Dunn Isaacson Rhee. And the firm is reportedly<\/a> recruiting even more lawyers to join their ranks.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 a lot of litigation talent loss at Paul, Weiss. It\u2019s almost like showing the world you aren\u2019t willing to defend the rule of law in court is a bad business decision for a major law firm.<\/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 Partners Are Running From The Stink Of Paul, Weiss\u2019s Capitulation<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Paul, Weiss shocked the world of Biglaw<\/a> in March when they became the first<\/a> \u2014 though not the last<\/a> \u2014 firm to bend a knee to Donald Trump to get out from under an\u00a0onerous Executive Order<\/a> designed to\u00a0extract a financial penalty\u00a0<\/a>for being affiliated with cases and causes that displeased the president. Since then, the firm has been experiencing the consequences of their actions \u2014 the deal with Trump keeps getting worse<\/a>, there\u2019ve been congressional investigations<\/a>, client concerns<\/a>, and so many lawyers bailing<\/a> on the firm<\/a> to distance themselves<\/a> from the craven capitulation.<\/p>\n

Over the last few days, the talent loss at Paul, Weiss has seen a noticeable uptick. On Friday, Damian Williams, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced<\/a> he was leaving the cowardly Paul, Weiss. Williams\u2019s new Biglaw home? Jenner & Block<\/a> \u2014 one of the four Biglaw firm fighting the Trump Biglaw executive orders in court. And\u2026 that tells you pretty much everything you need to know about what Williams thinks about making a deal with Trump.<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the only noteworthy recent partner departure. Three litigation partners: Melissa Zappala, Rush Atkinson (who worked on the Mueller investigation), and Kyle Smith are dipping from Paul, Weiss and heading to the new litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee. <\/p>\n

Dunn Isaacson Rhee was recently formed by four now-former Paul, Weiss partners looking to practice law free from the shadow of the Trump deal. <\/a>In addition to the seven partners, three associates \u2014 Erica Spevack, Lyle Gruby, and Leah Hibbler \u2014 have joined Dunn Isaacson Rhee. And the firm is reportedly<\/a> recruiting even more lawyers to join their ranks.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u2026 a lot of litigation talent loss at Paul, Weiss. It\u2019s almost like showing the world you aren\u2019t willing to defend the rule of law in court is a bad business decision for a major law firm.<\/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":"

Paul, Weiss shocked the world of Biglaw in March when they became the first \u2014 though not the last \u2014 firm to bend a knee to Donald Trump to get out from under an\u00a0onerous Executive Order designed to\u00a0extract a financial penalty\u00a0for being affiliated with cases and causes that displeased the president. Since then, the firm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122453,"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-122475","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\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-NSU3kx.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122475","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=122475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}