President Trump's presidential orders attack Paul Weiss and severely limiting the ability to represent law firm clients was widely viewed by lawyers as a dangerous humiliation against the country's legal system.
For Paul Weiss' rivals, it was an opportunity.
Within days of Trump's March 14th order, some of his biggest competitors had called out the top lawyers of the country's most prestigious law firm.
Several companies, including Sullivan & Cromwell and Kirkland & Ellis, were trying to exploit the moment, according to five lawyers who first-hand know about poaching. All lawyers interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about arguments that should remain private.
Competitors took a soft approach with Paul Weiss' rainmakers and sympathized with the lawyer's light-form, but said they could name the price if they wanted to get out of the mess. The four said that attorneys at another major law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, also contemplated whether they were trying to seduce their partners from Paul Weiss.
Outreach from other companies has heightened the panic that was shaking Paul Weiss after Trump issued an executive order. The order also said businesses doing business with Democrats and Paul Weiss, who have deep connections to its causes, could lose their government contracts.
Another law firm, Perkins Koy, received a similar order, but decided to challenge it in court. Initially, Paul Weiss wanted to create a unified front with other large law firms and also challenge orders issued against it. But the threat of losing the best lawyer has exacerbated the concern that the client would run away.
According to four people who were described as corporate deliberations, some partners were particularly concerned that Scott Bershay, the head of corporate practices, would leave and other lawyers would follow him. Even if the company succeeds in the courtroom, it will be labelled Trump's enemy and will struggle to get government approval for the deal.
So Paul Weiss quickly cut his deal with Trump. This requires the company to do $40 million in pro bono jobs because of the White House's support.
“The president's executive order has led us to wait for businesses to support us,” Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Carp wrote in an email to the company on Sunday. “Unfortunately, we've learned that other companies are far from support, actively recruiting clients and recruiting lawyers to exploit vulnerabilities.”
Kirkland & Ellis Chairman Jon Ballis said in a statement that his company had not tried to recruit lawyers for Paul Weiss. A spokesman for Sullivan & Cromwell has also refused to seek lawyers for the company. A representative from Wachtell Lipton said the company has never approached Paul Weiss' attorney.
Trump's executive order exposed the vulnerability with Paul Weiss. Officially known as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the company is known for its well-known litigators who appeared in court. However, litigation lawyers in recent years have been taking up the backseat for corporate trading makers. The company is now increasingly relying on satisfying high-paying corporate lawyers and implementing their businesses.
Large law firms are trapped in an escalating battle for legal talent. Large companies regularly poach top lawyers to bring in clients who can strengthen their practices and generate more fees. Top performers at large corporations can take home more than $20 million a year. Operating worldwide and employing more than 2,000 people, Paul Weiss's current revenue stream is corporate practices. According to Law.com, the company won approximately $2.6 billion in 2024 total revenue for 2024.
This year has a slow start for many large law firms, with tariff uncertainty and federal employment cuts usually refrigerating large corporations' activities.
It's especially difficult to lose a top lawyer when there's a shortage of transactions. If lawyers leave one company to another, they usually take their clients.
Over the past few years, Paul Weiss has played his own share of poaching, keeping corporate lawyers away from their rivals with a huge wage package.
One of the biggest recruits was Mr. Bershey, a rainmaker from Kravas, Swain and Moore who went to Paul Weiss in 2016 and now chairs the corporate division that advises businesses on mergers and other transactions. Barshay's clients include IBM, Qualcomm, General Electric and Chevron.
The best lawyers, including Barshay, have assured that Karp and others have no plans to leave, but the leadership is worried that there will still be an Exodus Book, said three people who explained the conversation.
When Paul Weiss discussed how he would respond to the executive order, Carp regularly gathered a small group of Top Brass, including Bershay. Paul Busta, co-chair of the Reorganization Division; Matthew Abbott, global co-chair of the merger group; and Angelo Bonvino, the group's global co-head.
The company had mixed opinions about how to respond, said four people within Paul Weiss. Some partners wanted to fight Trump's executive order in court. Some of their peers, lawyers, usually wanted to resist the beginning of their careers.
However, in leadership there were deep concerns about how many attorneys in the company could continue their work. Federal agencies often need to register for mergers and stock offerings of companies.
Even if the judge maintains the executive order, Paul Weiss will be tarred for being on Trump's bad side. These senior partners claimed they would ultimately aim to hire a law firm with a more advantageous position in Washington.
Barshay was one of those who supported the deal with Trump, and ultimately the lawyers who head the company's other business lines were backing the resolution, the three explained the decision.
But people said some lawyers led by the company's top litigator, Kanon Shanmugam, were preparing legal challenges in case Paul Weiss couldn't make the deal.
Carp boarded a private jet for a meeting at the White House on March 18th early the next day. He went to the oval office alone. Trump was accompanied by his chief of staff, Susie Wills. his advisor Steve Witkoff. and his personal legal counsel, Boris Epstein.
And Trump said another person wanted to dial in the group to the meeting. Robert Zihula, co-chair of Sullivan and Cromwell, according to two people who are well-versed in what happened.
Juhura, who has known Trump for many years, recently agreed to deal with his conviction complaint over accusations that Trump had covered a hash money deal with porn star Stormy Daniels in New York State Court.
Initially, people said the conversation between the president and the two legitimate rivals focused on golf. The debate then relied on Trump's concerns about Paul Weiss' long-standing relationship with democratic politics.
Law firms sometimes match political parties. But Paul Weiss' involvement in the first lawsuit against the Trump administration on issues like immigration policy. Also, when the Manhattan District Attorney's Office investigated some of Trump's business transactions, Paul Weiss rented two peers out to the office to build a potential case.
Jufra worked with Trump to work with Calp, who was advising Carp on details of the contract, and Bill Burke, who was advising Carp on the details of the contract. Mr. Jufra's involvement was a troubling twist given the competitiveness between his company and Paul Weiss.
Also behind the scenes, the president's advisor Stephen Miller was the first Trump administration's polarizing figure, two people who described the issue.
Asked about the meeting and Miller's involvement, a White House spokesman praised the question and instead pressured Trump to a major law firm to work with the government.
The meeting concluded a contract and announced that Trump had lifted the executive order by Thursday evening. Carp tried to assure his company that the deal coincided with Paul Weiss' value.
However, he faces a barrage of public condemnation for signing a contract, and many critics say he will only involve the president in search of retaliation against more law firms. Some of the criticisms came from a group of around 140 Paul Weiss alumni. He signed a letter to Mr. Carp and called for a decision to resolve “co-disease.”
“It is a permanent stain on the face of a great company that sought to profit from confiscating the soul,” the lawyer wrote in the letter.
So far, it appears that Paul Weiss hasn't lost any partners or large clients.
One of the clients who wanted to leave was Stephen Schwartz, an attorney facing federal foreign bribery charges in New Jersey. Schwartz immediately hired Sullivan & Cromwell's defense attorneys, representing him out of concern that Trump's executive order would make it impossible for Paul Weiss to represent him.
However, since the executive order was lifted last week, Schwartz has shown that he may be rethinking changes to his lawyers, according to court filings in the case.
On Sunday, Carp in his email claimed that Paul Weiss needed a contract to survive.
“No one in the wider world can understand how stressful it is to stand up to these executive orders until it's directed at you,” he wrote.
By Tuesday, another law firm was in the president's Crosshairs.
Trump has issued an executive order against Jenner & Brock, who hired a top lawyer who worked with special advisor Robert Mueller on an investigation into whether Trump invited Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In a statement issued the order, the White House said “President Trump is keeping his promise to end the government's weaponization.”
Maggie Haberman and Maureen Farrell contributed to the report.
