The law firm’s chairman, Brad Karp, capitulated to the president’s threats. The descendants of the man who wrote its high-minded principles told Mr. Karp that he had betrayed them.

In an email message, the law firm’s chairman, Brad Karp, reassured employees that its deal with President Trump was in keeping with its principles.

I don’t have a large budget for outside counsel, but I definitely won’t be spending it with law firms who don’t stand up for themselves in the face of injustice," Ray Everett, general counsel for health care at TopCon Corp.

NYU legal ethics professor Stephen Gillers says the specific promises in Paul Weiss’ agreement with Trump aren’t objectionable on close review, especially when weighed against the possibly existential cost of litigating.

Powerful Wall Street law firm Paul Weiss faced heavy criticism on Friday over a deal it struck with the White House to escape an executive order imperiling the firm's business, even as some lawyers said the firm faced few other options.

Law firms represent moneyed interests, so there is an inherent conflict here,” said Bill Henderson, a law professor at Indiana University. “They are in bed making a good living with these clients, and there are social consequences to that.

In its latest climate scorecard, Czarnek’s group calculated that Paul Weiss—which scored an “F” grade for its work involving climate change—topped all other Vault 100 firms in the number of cases in which it represented fossil fuel companies between 2019 and 2023.

A day after President Donald Trump announced that Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison chair Brad Karp had agreed to a deal to rescind an executive order, the law firm was getting pummeled with criticism for capitulating to the president.

More than 140 alumni of Paul Weiss signed an open letter to chairman Brad Karp.