One of the country’s most prestigious law firms has regained favor with President Donald Trump after having its security clearances revoked last week. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP struck a deal with the president, making several concessions in exchange for the reversal of his order.
On March 14, Trump issued an executive order cutting ties between his administration and Paul Weiss. He said the move was made because the powerful New York City-based law firm was undeserving of federal sanction because it had become a partisan organization pushing “unlawful” diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and weaponizing the legal system to target Republicans including himself.
On Thursday evening, however, Trump reversed that executive order, explaining that he met with the firm’s leaders and reached an agreement clearing up his concerns.
“The President is agreeing to this action in light of a meeting with Paul, Weiss Chairman, Brad Karp, during which Mr. Karp acknowledged the wrongdoing of former Paul, Weiss partner, Mark Pomerantz, the grave dangers of Weaponization, and the vital need to restore our System of Justice,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
He added, “In response to the President’s announcement, Paul, Weiss’s Chairman Brad Karp said: ‘We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss. We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration.’”
Paul Karp is the law firm’s chairman and launched fundraising efforts for former Vice President Kamala Harris last year during her campaign for the presidency.
Mark Pomerantz was a former partner at Weiss’s firm who had a long history of targeting Trump in the legal system. The president has always argued that Pomerantz’s cases against him were “unethical” and “manufactured.” Pomerantz told the New York Times that he “engaged in no wrongdoing by working as a prosecutor to uphold the rule of law.”
In his statement Thursday, Trump outlined a number of conditions he said Weiss’s firm agreed to in order to regain favor.
In addition to acknowledging Pomerantz’s “wrongdoing,” Trump said the firm agreed to represent a broad spectrum of clients regardless of their political affiliation, pursue merit-based hiring instead of DEI practices, and provide $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of the president’s second term “to support the Administration’s initiatives, including: assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the Justice System, the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.”
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“Paul, Weiss agrees that the bedrock principle of American Justice is that it must be fair and nonpartisan for all. Our Justice System is betrayed when it is misused to achieve political ends,” Trump’s statement read.
“Lawyers and law firms play a vital role in ensuring that we live up to that standard as a Nation. Law firms should not favor any political party when it comes to choosing their clients. Firms also should not make decisions on whom to hire based on a person’s political affiliation. To do otherwise is to deny some Americans an equal opportunity for our services while favoring others,” the statement added.
