Four top lawyers, including two who have represented prominent Democratic figures over the years, are leaving Paul Weiss just months after the prestigious law firm struck a deal with President Donald Trump.
According to multiple reports, top litigators Karen Dunn, Jeannie Rhee, Jessica Phillips, and William Isaacson are exiting Paul Weiss to start their own law firm. All four were known for high-profile lawsuits, with Dunn and Rhee serving as co-leader of the litigation department and managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, respectively.
They announced their departures in a message to colleagues.
“It has been an honor to work alongside such talented lawyers and to call so many of you our friends. We hope to continue to collaborate with all of you in the years to come and are incredibly grateful for your warm and generous partnership,” the message said.
According to Politico, Dunn has helped Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates prepare for debates since 2008, while Rhee represented Hillary Clinton in a lawsuit regarding her use of a personal email server and also joined former special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigative team looking into allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
Phillips previously represented tech companies including Apple and Oracle, while Isaacson was named a “Litigator of the Year” in 2016.
The exit of several top lawyers from Paul Weiss comes just over two months after the firm reached a deal with Trump to avoid losing its government contracts and access to federal buildings. The deal, struck in mid-March, led to Trump rescinding an earlier executive order that would have cut ties with the law firm over it becoming a partisan organization pushing “unlawful” DEI initiatives and weaponizing the legal system to target Republicans.
After the reversal, Trump said Paul Weiss agreed to represent a broad spectrum of clients regardless of their political affiliation, pursue merit-based hiring instead of DEI practices, and provide $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of the president’s second term “to support the Administration’s initiatives, including: assisting our Nation’s veterans, fairness in the Justice System, the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and other mutually agreed projects.”
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Paul Weiss is one of nine law firms that has reached a deal with the Trump administration in order to avoid being targeted. Those other firms include Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher, Skadden and Latham & Watkins.
Still, some law firms have pushed back against Trump’s executive orders, including Jenner & Block. Just ahead of Memorial Day weekend, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order targeting it, ruling that the order was unlawful.