Rivals pounce after Trump hits law firm

Fears that competitors could take its top talent added to the worries at Paul Weiss about a Trump executive order that targeted it, write Matthew Goldstein, Michael Schmidt and Jessica Silver-Greenberg from New York and Washington

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US President Donald Trump’s executive order attacking Paul Weiss and severely restricting that law firm’s ability to represent its clients was widely seen by lawyers and dangerous affront to the nation’s legal system.

To rivals of Paul Weiss, it was an opportunity.

Within days of Trump’s March 14 order, some of the biggest competitors were calling up top lawyers at the beleaguered law firm — one of the nation’s most prestigious — asking if they wanted to jump ship along with their lucrative clients.

Several firms, including Sullivan & Cromwell and Kirkland & Ellis, were looking to exploit the moment, according to five lawyers with direct knowledge of the pitching. All the lawyers interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about discussions that were supposed to remain private.

The competitors took a soft approach with Paul Weiss’s rainmakers, saying that they sympathised with the lawyers’ plight but that if they wanted out of the turmoil, they could name their price. Lawyers at another major law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, inquired whether they try to lure partners away from Paul Weiss, but of the people said.

The outreach from other firms heightened the panic that had been roiling Paul Weiss after Trump issued the executive order, which restricted the firm’s lawyers from dealing with the government, including entering federal buildings. The order also said companies doing business with Paul Weiss, which has deep ties to the Democratic Party and its causes, could lose their government contracts.

Another law firm, Perkins Coie, received a similar order and decided to challenge it in court. At first, Paul Weiss hoped to create a unified front with other big law firms to challenge the order issued against it, too. But the threat of losing its top lawyers compounded worries that directly affected the firm.