Paul Weiss’ Brad Karp Says Trump Deal Aligns With Firm Values

The chairman of Paul Weiss told firm employees that his deal with the Trump administration for free legal services in exchange for rescinding last week’s executive order is consistent with the elite law firm’s values.

“The commitments reaffirmed today are consistent with Judge Simon H. Rifkind’s 1963 statement of firm principles,” Brad Karp said in a firmwide email Thursday evening, which was reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

Rifkind was a federal judge who left the bench in 1950 to join the firm and expanded the firm’s litigation department.

“We believe in maintaining, by affirmative efforts, a membership of partners and associates reflecting a wide variety of religious, political, ethnic and social backgrounds,” Rifkind’s statement says, as quoted in Karp’s email.

The email followed an announcement from President Trump on his own social media platform that he reached a deal with Karp and would rescind a March 14 executive order that stripped the firm’s security clearances and threatened federal contracts held by firm clients. In exchange, Karp said the firm would take on pro bono legal matters that reflect a wider variety of political viewpoints.

As part of the deal, Karp pledged $40 million in pro bono legal services to advance Trump administration goals such as supporting “fairness in the justice system” and the president’s task force to combat antisemitism. Karp also agreed to allow the firm to undergo an audit for DEI, and acknowledged “wrongdoing” on the part of former partner Mark Pomerantz, Trump’s post said.

Karp’s email sought to move the firm away from the attention garnered by Trump’s March 14 order: “With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus—as we always do—to our clients, our work, our colleagues, and our firm,” he said in closing.

Karp didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.