There’s something fundamentally unsavory to the majority of lawyerly types about selling out the rule of law. Nine Biglaw firms struck deals with the Trump administration in order to avoid unconstitutional Executive Orders designed to hurt the bottom line of major law firms. And there’s already fallout over the capitulation.
The firms that caved to Trump signaled they’re unwilling to take a legal fight to the Trump administration. Some clients see that as weak, and, increasingly, are pulling work away from the firms that have deals with Trump. And there’s not one, but two congressional probes over the dealings. Plus, attorneys are leaving the firms that caved to Trump, hoping to get the stink of capitulation off their resumes.
But at least one of those firms is trying to make lemonade out of those self-inflicted lemons.
According to reporting by The Hill, Jon Ballis, chair at Kirkland & Ellis (a firm eager to strike a deal with Trump), was one of the business leaders that flew to Riyadh to have lunch with Trump and Saudi officials for a meeting reportedly focused on investment opportunities. Amongst others, there were representatives from Alcola, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, Halliburton, CitiGroup, and IBM. Ballis was the only Biglaw leader at the luncheon.
Saudi Arabia pledged to invest $1 trillion in the US through a sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. PIF has historically looked to Latham & Watkins and A&O Shearman (firms that have also bent a knee to Donald Trump) for legal advice. Though, according to a recent report from Roy Storm at Bloomberg Law, Kirkland is increasingly trying to compete for that work.
…And I guess we now know Kirkland’s price for selling out the rule of law.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
