Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
I suspect that we have already seen most of the direct effects that we are going to see in terms of departures and client responses. I don’t think the deals will have a big impact on recruiting in 2026. The exception might be Paul Weiss, which may find that it does not attract applicants with the same attitudes and interests as it might have in the past.
No one expected Paul Weiss to settle so quickly. In doing so, it signaled that it was OK for other firms to do the same. I think Paul Weiss drew a lot of the anger and disappointment about the decision because lawyers felt that the firm had not only betrayed its own values, but the values of the legal profession. Rather than stand up to the executive, it capitulated.
— Leslie Levin, a legal ethics professor at the University of Connecticut Law School, in comments given to the American Lawyer, concerning the fate of the law firms that settled with the Trump administration — and that of Paul, Weiss, in particular — rather than litigate against the president’s retaliatory law firm executive orders. Scott Cummings, a legal ethics professor at UCLA School of Law, thinks that the “verdict is still out” for firms that capitulated, saying, “The blowback from the legal profession is incredibly strong.”
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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