{"id":129717,"date":"2025-08-06T11:42:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/06\/suing-white-supremacists-considered-biglaw-brave-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:42:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T19:42:54","slug":"suing-white-supremacists-considered-biglaw-brave-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/06\/suing-white-supremacists-considered-biglaw-brave-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Suing White Supremacists Considered Biglaw Brave In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul, Weiss is representing Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in a lawsuit<\/a> against the Hudson Valley Proud Boys and their president William Pepe. The historically Black church is suing over trademark infringement, as Metropolitan AME was awarded Proud Boys International\u2019s interest in the \u201cProud Boys\u201d trademark after a 2020 attack by members of Proud Boys.<\/p>\n

In a normal world, this is the sort of representation that the firm boasts about but is so uncontroversial that it\u2019s not really \u201cnews.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s 2025<\/a>, so this qualifies as a Big Deal.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s war on Biglaw<\/a>, through unconstitutional Executive Orders<\/a> designed to break major law firms<\/a>\u00a0unless they bend a knee<\/a> to Trump, has already had a tremendous impact on the industry. In the\u00a0face of financial harm,\u00a0<\/a> nine major firms sought<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s seal of approval, providing pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of conservative clients or causes<\/a> in order to avoid Trumpian retribution. But the chilling effect<\/a> is even greater than those capitulating firms, because pro bono and public interest representations by Biglaw firms<\/a> are down \u2014 significantly<\/a> \u2014 as firms don\u2019t want to risk Trump\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n

And Paul, Weiss was one of the firms \u2014 the very first firm<\/a>, in fact \u2014 that capitulated to Trump. Since then, the firm has been experiencing the consequences<\/a> of their actions \u2014 the deal with\u00a0Trump keeps getting worse<\/a>, there\u2019ve been\u00a0congressional investigations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0client concerns<\/a>. And, of course, there\u2019ve been bunches lawyers\u00a0bailing<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0the firm<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0distance themselves<\/a>\u00a0from the craven capitulation \u2014 most notably, the anticipated 20-odd litigators leaving to work at litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee, the firm\u00a0created in the wake of Paul, Weiss\u2019s Trump deal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So Paul, Weiss taking the legal fight to the Hudson Valley Proud Boys \u2014 and Pepe, who was pardoned by Trump for his role in the January 6th attempted coup \u2014 is being hailed <\/a>as a stance against the president\u2019s agenda. Let\u2019s not get too excited though. When it comes to Biglaw bravery, the firms that refused to ink a deal <\/a>with Trump and are actively fighting the Biglaw EOs in court are at the top of the pyramid. Then the firms actively litigating<\/a> against key aspects of Trump\u2019s agenda. The firms that capitulated to Trump have a long way to go before the even start to undo the damage they\u2019ve done to the rule of law (and even in that category, Milbank<\/a> is lapping <\/a>Paul, Weiss).<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s certainly better than repping the Proud Boys in this case.<\/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<\/p>\n

The post Suing White Supremacists Considered Biglaw Brave In 2025<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMetropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (Photo by Marvin Joseph\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul, Weiss is representing Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in a lawsuit<\/a> against the Hudson Valley Proud Boys and their president William Pepe. The historically Black church is suing over trademark infringement, as Metropolitan AME was awarded Proud Boys International\u2019s interest in the \u201cProud Boys\u201d trademark after a 2020 attack by members of Proud Boys.<\/p>\n

In a normal world, this is the sort of representation that the firm boasts about but is so uncontroversial that it\u2019s not really \u201cnews.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s 2025<\/a>, so this qualifies as a Big Deal.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s war on Biglaw<\/a>, through unconstitutional Executive Orders<\/a> designed to break major law firms<\/a>\u00a0unless they bend a knee<\/a> to Trump, has already had a tremendous impact on the industry. In the\u00a0face of financial harm,\u00a0<\/a> nine major firms sought<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s seal of approval, providing pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of conservative clients or causes<\/a> in order to avoid Trumpian retribution. But the chilling effect<\/a> is even greater than those capitulating firms, because pro bono and public interest representations by Biglaw firms<\/a> are down \u2014 significantly<\/a> \u2014 as firms don\u2019t want to risk Trump\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n

And Paul, Weiss was one of the firms \u2014 the very first firm<\/a>, in fact \u2014 that capitulated to Trump. Since then, the firm has been experiencing the consequences<\/a> of their actions \u2014 the deal with\u00a0Trump keeps getting worse<\/a>, there\u2019ve been\u00a0congressional investigations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0client concerns<\/a>. And, of course, there\u2019ve been bunches lawyers\u00a0bailing<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0the firm<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0distance themselves<\/a>\u00a0from the craven capitulation \u2014 most notably, the anticipated 20-odd litigators leaving to work at litigation boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee, the firm\u00a0created in the wake of Paul, Weiss\u2019s Trump deal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So Paul, Weiss taking the legal fight to the Hudson Valley Proud Boys \u2014 and Pepe, who was pardoned by Trump for his role in the January 6th attempted coup \u2014 is being hailed <\/a>as a stance against the president\u2019s agenda. Let\u2019s not get too excited though. When it comes to Biglaw bravery, the firms that refused to ink a deal <\/a>with Trump and are actively fighting the Biglaw EOs in court are at the top of the pyramid. Then the firms actively litigating<\/a> against key aspects of Trump\u2019s agenda. The firms that capitulated to Trump have a long way to go before the even start to undo the damage they\u2019ve done to the rule of law (and even in that category, Milbank<\/a> is lapping <\/a>Paul, Weiss).<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s certainly better than repping the Proud Boys in this case.<\/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 is representing Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in a lawsuit against the Hudson Valley Proud Boys and their president William Pepe. The historically Black church is suing over trademark infringement, as Metropolitan AME was awarded Proud Boys International\u2019s interest in the \u201cProud Boys\u201d trademark after a 2020 attack by members of Proud Boys. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129718,"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-129717","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\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-C1T4DN.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129717","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=129717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}