{"id":123282,"date":"2025-06-18T12:36:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T20:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/18\/willkie-farr-gets-slammed-for-grave-mistake\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:36:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T20:36:58","slug":"willkie-farr-gets-slammed-for-grave-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/18\/willkie-farr-gets-slammed-for-grave-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"Willkie Farr Gets Slammed For \u2018Grave Mistake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Coast Willkie Farr attorneys are leaving en masse because the firm\u00a0bent a knee to Donald Trump,<\/a>\u00a0pledging $100 million in pro bono payola to avoid an\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0<\/a>Executive Order targeting the firm, and the\u00a0tremendous harm<\/a>\u00a0that can bring. And they\u2019re heading to a firm with a proven track record of standing up to the Trump administration, <\/a>Cooley. While the departing partners (and the books of business they represent) are garnering the most attention, <\/a>associates are also part of the exodus \u2014 and they\u2019ve got something to say.<\/p>\n

As reported b<\/a>y Law.com, the total number of Willkie attorneys headed to Cooley is currently 13. And several of the associates making the move have taken to LinkedIn to express their feelings about their soon-to-be-former firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave. But as soon as the firm decided to make a deal with the Trump administration, I knew that I could not stay,\u201d wrote Isabella McKinley Corbo in a LinkedIn post. \u201cWhen I became a lawyer, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I believe that Willkie\u2019s decision to capitulate to Trump violated that oath. It was a grave mistake-\u2013one that I believe history will judge harshly, as it will all firms that made this choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am privileged and proud to be joining many of my mentors from Willkie who did just that by departing last week for Cooley LLP, a firm with a proven record of fighting this administration, rather than bowing to a would-be autocrat,\u201d\u00a0Corbo continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment I first interviewed at Willkie as a 1L, I felt like I had found a home\u2014one filled with brilliant advocates who meet their work each day with courage, kindness, and tenacity,\u201d wrote Remy Carreiro on LinkedIn. \u201cIt is because of this that I was so heartbroken when Willkie chose to make a deal with Trump in April. This decision was, and continues to be, wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had asked me on March 31, I would have said I had no immediate plans to leave [Willkie] \u2013 it truly has felt like home for these past two years. But the decision to make a deal with Trump is not a decision that I can live with or be a part of. It was the wrong decision and one that history will not be (and has not been) kind to,\u201d wrote Emily Abbey. \u201cIt\u2019s an immense privilege to be joining the seven courageous, principled partners who left this firm for Cooley LLP, a firm that has a demonstrated record of fighting the administration, not rolling over.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just more evidence that many attorneys want to distance themselves from the stink of capitulation.<\/a><\/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 Willkie Farr Gets Slammed For \u2018Grave Mistake\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

West Coast Willkie Farr attorneys are leaving en masse because the firm\u00a0bent a knee to Donald Trump,<\/a>\u00a0pledging $100 million in pro bono payola to avoid an\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0<\/a>Executive Order targeting the firm, and the\u00a0tremendous harm<\/a>\u00a0that can bring. And they\u2019re heading to a firm with a proven track record of standing up to the Trump administration, <\/a>Cooley. While the departing partners (and the books of business they represent) are garnering the most attention, <\/a>associates are also part of the exodus \u2014 and they\u2019ve got something to say.<\/p>\n

As reported b<\/a>y Law.com, the total number of Willkie attorneys headed to Cooley is currently 13. And several of the associates making the move have taken to LinkedIn to express their feelings about their soon-to-be-former firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave. But as soon as the firm decided to make a deal with the Trump administration, I knew that I could not stay,\u201d wrote Isabella McKinley Corbo in a LinkedIn post. \u201cWhen I became a lawyer, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I believe that Willkie\u2019s decision to capitulate to Trump violated that oath. It was a grave mistake-\u2013one that I believe history will judge harshly, as it will all firms that made this choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am privileged and proud to be joining many of my mentors from Willkie who did just that by departing last week for Cooley LLP, a firm with a proven record of fighting this administration, rather than bowing to a would-be autocrat,\u201d\u00a0Corbo continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the moment I first interviewed at Willkie as a 1L, I felt like I had found a home\u2014one filled with brilliant advocates who meet their work each day with courage, kindness, and tenacity,\u201d wrote Remy Carreiro on LinkedIn. \u201cIt is because of this that I was so heartbroken when Willkie chose to make a deal with Trump in April. This decision was, and continues to be, wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had asked me on March 31, I would have said I had no immediate plans to leave [Willkie] \u2013 it truly has felt like home for these past two years. But the decision to make a deal with Trump is not a decision that I can live with or be a part of. It was the wrong decision and one that history will not be (and has not been) kind to,\u201d wrote Emily Abbey. \u201cIt\u2019s an immense privilege to be joining the seven courageous, principled partners who left this firm for Cooley LLP, a firm that has a demonstrated record of fighting the administration, not rolling over.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just more evidence that many attorneys want to distance themselves from the stink of capitulation.<\/a><\/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":"

West Coast Willkie Farr attorneys are leaving en masse because the firm\u00a0bent a knee to Donald Trump,\u00a0pledging $100 million in pro bono payola to avoid an\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0Executive Order targeting the firm, and the\u00a0tremendous harm\u00a0that can bring. And they\u2019re heading to a firm with a proven track record of standing up to the Trump administration, Cooley. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123262,"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-123282","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-WCRCcd.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123282","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=123282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}