25 March 2025 For immediate release
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“Craven, Shameful Surrender” Says Refuse Fascism
Tuesday Protest of Paul, Weiss Firm’s Capitulation to Trump Demands
What: Protest / Photo Op
When: Tuesday March 25 12:00 pm
Where: outside Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, 1285 6th Avenue
RefuseFascism.org said today, “Paul Weiss, one of the nation’s most prominent law firms, made a disgusting deal last week with the fascist US president Donald Trump. This is craven capitulation to Trump’s brazen attack on the integrity of the legal profession and the rule of law. It is a shameful surrender to the Trump regime’s campaign of retribution against major law firms that represented lawyers and prosecutors in the criminal cases against Mr. Trump before the 2024 election.
To get out from under a Trump executive order that would block it from representing many clients before the federal government, Paul Weiss has agreed to donate $40 million worth of free legal services for advancing the Trump administration’s reactionary policy goals and drop all internal diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. They issued an Issue an absurd statement saying that its former partner Mark Pomerantz had ‘committed wrongdoing’ by playing a leading role in the criminal investigation that lead to Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York.
This capitulation sets a dangerous precedent that undermines everyone’s right to legal counsel who will fight for their rights, regardless of the opponent they face. Paul Weiss’s bow to Trump is especially chilling because the firm has long been run by Democrats and been a leader in the defense of civil rights. A leading multinational firm, Paul Weiss has all the money and talent it needs to fight Trump’s unlawful order.
Refuse Fascism stands with the hundreds of law firm associates who have signed an open letter calling on their employers to speak out against the Trump administration’s criminal threats to the legal profession. We stand with Rachel Cohen, an associate at the prestigious law firm Skadden Arps who has given her employer her two-weeks’ notice, unless her firm stands up to the Trump administration. Faced with the same challenge, the law firm Perkins Coie took Trump to court. A federal judge ruled that a similar executive order targeting Perkins Coie was probably unconstitutional and issued a restraining order.
‘Fascism’ is not a curse word. Fully imposed, it is a radically oppressive and repressive form of rule in which the rule of law is shredded, civil and democratic rights are eliminated, dissent is criminalized and the truth is bludgeoned.
IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA
THE TRUMP REGIME MUST GO!”
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