TIRED OF WINNING — Another law firm — the third so far — scored a resounding legal victory this week against the Trump administration. They were successful because they decided not to capitulate and instead take him to court. Earlier this year, Trump issued an unprecedented series of executive orders that imposed a variety of sanctions — including barring lawyers from the firms from entering federal property — on a number of large law firms. After Trump began his effort, a sharp split among firms emerged. The law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which was on the receiving end of one of those orders, agreed to provide $40 million worth of pro bono legal services for issues supported by the White House in exchange for Trump rescinding his order and lifting the sanctions against the firm and its lawyers. Eight more firms followed suit, ultimately pledging nearly a billion dollars’ worth of similar pro bono services in support of administration causes. Four law firms, however, refused to buckle. They filed lawsuits challenging their respective orders — targeting the orders on First Amendment grounds, among others. On Tuesday, a federal judge in D.C. struck down the executive order against WilmerHale , one of the four prominent firms to fight back. The firm joins two others — Jenner & Block and Perkins Coie — that also successfully pushed back in court. (It is not yet clear whether the Justice Department will appeal.) Meanwhile, a fourth firm, Susman Godfrey, obtained a preliminary victory ; a final decision remains outstanding, though the firm’s odds are looking better by the day. These developments suggest that we may be seeing a shift in the political and legal dynamics around these deals. When Paul, Weiss entered into the first deal, the firm’s chairman, Brad Karp, told lawyers in the firm that he had no choice because the order posed an “existential” threat to the firm and “could easily have destroyed ” it. This assertion was highly questionable even at the time , but the assessment looks even worse in hindsight. All indications are that WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey still very much exist — with lawyers, clients, offices and all the rest. (Disclosure: Your correspondent this evening worked at Paul, Weiss years ago.) WilmerHale’s victory came on the heels of the announcement from four Paul, Weiss partners on Friday that they were leaving the firm to start their own venture. They include Karen Dunn, a prominent litigator and long-time fixture in Democratic circles who oversaw Kamala Harris’s debate prep last year; Jeannie Rhee, a former federal prosecutor who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation; and William Isaacson, another prominent trial lawyer. Exactly why they left is not clear. According to reporting from The New York Times , Dunn supported the decision to strike a deal with Trump and in fact helped rally support among the partnership. She apparently shares the blame for a deal that may have run afoul of the law in multiple serious ways and that paved the way for others to cave. Since then, however, Paul, Weiss has become a pariah of sorts in the eyes of the Democratic Party — a symbol of elite capitulation in the age of Trump 2.0. It’s a remarkable fall from grace both for the firm as an institution, once seen as a largely reliable supporter of Democrats and home to quite a few former Democratic administration lawyers , and for Karp personally, a major fundraiser for the party who once styled himself as a power broker of sorts at the intersection of Manhattan’s law and finance worlds. Seen against that backdrop, Dunn’s departure may partly reflect the atmosphere among Democrats in Washington these days. Dunn was once widely seen within Paul, Weiss as a potential successor to Karp as the head of the firm, so her decision to leave was surprising — the job is worth tens of millions of dollars a year — and is also likely to put a small dent in the firm’s revenue. But for a lawyer who wants to remain a political player in Democratic circles, the Paul, Weiss brand — along with the brands of the other firms that surrendered to Trump — may no longer be helpful. In fact, it may be a hindrance to professional advancement within the party and to the sorts of jobs — like White House counsel or a senior position in the Justice Department — that many of the most prominent Democratic lawyers aspire to hold. The ongoing fallout for the settling firms now appears to present a cautionary tale: They may have succeeded in taking the easy way out and keeping their very profitable businesses humming along, but memories in Washington are long. Even early into his second term, the firms that are fighting Trump in court are winning. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at akhardori@politico.com .
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