This morning, a group of alumni of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP sent a letter to Chairman Brad Karp protesting the firm’s deal reached last week with President Trump. The letter references the pride the alumni had felt about being a part of a firm with a storied history of involvement in good government and democracy causes and references several prominent alumni, including Simon Rifkind, Lloyd Garrison, Arthur Liman, and Jay Topkis.  

“We expected the firm to be a leader in standing up for the legal profession, the adversary system, and the right to counsel,” the letter says. “Instead of a ringing defense of the values of democracy, we witnessed a craven surrender to, and thus complicity in, what is perhaps the gravest threat to the independence of the legal profession since at least the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy.” 

The letter was signed by 141 firm alumni and spans multiple generations of law firm associates, including signatories who worked there in the 1960s. Forty-five of the signatories, out of concern for professional repercussions, joined the letter anonymously, listed only by their terminal title at the firm and the years they worked there. The letter calls for the firm to reject the Trump Administration’s attacks on the rule of law and to recommit to the firm’s historical values. 

“The rule of law is under attack from this White House,” said Elizabeth J. Grossman, one of the signatories on the letter and Executive Director of Common Cause Illinois. “My fear is that other law firms follow suit and fundamental constitutional values—the right to counsel, the right to free speech and assembly—crumble. We can’t let that happen.”  

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