Paul, Weiss Next on the Chopping Block

Yesterday the President issued another Executive Order, this time targeting all “employees of Paul, Weiss” – quite coincidentally, the 2024 AmLaw and 2024 NY Law Journal “Law Firm of the Year”! – “and Mark Pomerantz,” a lawyer formerly, but no longer, employed by the firm.**

Under the terms of the Executive Order, (1) security clearances for every one of the thousands of Paul Weiss employees (and Mark Pomerantz) are “immediately suspended, pending a review of whether their access to sensitive information is consistent with the national interest”; (2) the government “will halt all material and services . . . provided to Paul Weiss and restrict its employees’ access to government buildings”; (3) the government “will terminate contracts that involve Paul Weiss”; and (4) federal agencies will “refrain from hiring Paul, Weiss employees unless specifically authorized.”

** Pomerantz was of counsel to the litigation department at Paul Weiss when, in 2021, he left the firm to join the New York City DA’s office as a Special Assistant DA, to assist DA Cyrus Vance Jr. in his investigation of Donald Trump’s business and financial dealings. He resigned that position in 2022, when the new DA, Alvin Bragg, announced that the office would not be pursuing an indictment of the former president.  Pomerantz wrote an angry letter of resignation, and he wrote an angry book about his experience in the DA’s office (The People v. Donald Trump). According to a Paul, Weiss spokesperson, he has no current affiliation with the firm.

That is, to put it mildly, a pretty serious blow to the firm’s business activities. And what had Paul, Weiss done to deserve all this? The Order spells it out in gruesome detail:

Paul Weiss hired unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz, who had previously left the firm to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office solely to manufacture a prosecution against President Trump.  According to his coworkers, Pomerantz had unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate President Trump. After being unable to convince Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that a fraud case was feasible, Pomerantz engaged in a media campaign to gin up support for this unwarranted prosecution.

Wait . . .  that’s it? Because they hired “unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz,” we need to keep their lawyers and paralegals and administrative staff out of government buildings? And terminate all contracts we have with the firm? And revoke all of their security clearances?  Because they hired someone who, “according to his coworkers,” had “unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate President Trump,” and then tried to gin up support for what he did in a “media campaign”? Seriously? That’s why we are hitting them with these rather extraordinary sanctions?

Nervous, yet?  “First they came for the law firms, but I wasn’t a law firm, so I didn’t care.” One definition of authoritarian tyranny is that you are subject to punishment entirely at the whim of one person. We seem to have gotten there. Cross Donald Trump and he’ll drop the hammer on you. Acting entirely alone, by Executive Order, he can destroy – or, at the very least, substantially harm – you and your business. He can even single you out as an individual!: “and Mark Pomerantz.” The President is judge, jury, and executioner.  That’s how it works, now.

Presumably, the Administration will be enjoined from implementing most, and perhaps all, of this Executive Order, just as it has been enjoined from implementing many of the similarly punitive restrictions on the Perkins, Coie firm. But lots of damage has been done, and, more importantly, the message has been sent: Stand in this guy’s way and you will be punished. Cross him at your peril. Could it be any clearer?

And to top things off, the Executive Order contains a section on “Ending the Weaponization of Government”:

President Trump is delivering on his promise to end the weaponization of government and protect the nation from partisan actors who exploit their influence.

• President Trump is refocusing government operations to their core mission—serving the citizens of the United States.
• President Trump signed an Executive Order to end the weaponization of the Federal Government on his first day in office after promising to “end forever the weaponization of government and the abuse of law enforcement against political opponents.”

It is, truly, absurd and Orwellian: declaring that you are ending “weaponization of the government,” and the “abuse of law enforcement against political opponents” while simultaneously bringing the full sweep of executive power (and more!) to impose some pretty savage punishment on your personal and political enemies! It’s a nice trick, if you can pull it off.

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