The chairman of Paul Weiss sought to reassure employees at the giant law firm that the deal it had reached with President Trump was consistent with principles that the 150-year-old firm has long stood by.
On Thursday evening, the chairman, Brad Karp, sent a firmwide email detailing the agreement he had reached with Mr. Trump, which allowed the firm to escape an executive order that could have cost it significant business.
The order, part of a broader retribution campaign against law firms, threatened to suspend the law firm’s security clearances and bar its lawyers from federal buildings, which would have made it virtually impossible for Paul Weiss to represent clients in some cases involving the federal government.
Within the firm, some top partners were concerned that the details of the executive order were less important than the message it sent to Paul Weiss’s clients, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The order, they said, sent the strong message that Paul Weiss was out of favor.
In the email to the firm, which was viewed by The New York Times, Mr. Karp said that in reaching an agreement with Mr. Trump, he had really just “reaffirmed” the firm’s statement of principles outlined in 1963 by one of Paul Weiss’s original named partners, Judge Simon H. Rifkind.
“The commitments reaffirmed today are consistent with Judge Simon H. Rifkind’s 1963 Statement of Firm Principles,” which states, among other things, that “we believe in maintaining, by affirmative efforts, a membership of partners and associates reflecting a wide variety of religious, political, ethnic and social backgrounds,” Mr. Karp wrote in the email.
Despite Mr. Karp’s assurances, the deal that he had reached with Mr. Trump during a meeting at the White House was causing concern among the broader legal community that large law firms were capitulating to Mr. Trump’s demands instead of fighting them in court.
Under the deal, the firm agreed to do $40 million worth of pro bono work on causes supported by the Trump administration, such as working with veterans and fighting antisemitism.
“Thank you all for your patience during this time,” Mr. Karp told the roughly 2,000 lawyers and support staff at the firm. “With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus — as we always do — to our clients, our work, our colleagues and our firm.”
The message was also shared with some of the firm’s clients.
Paul Weiss, formally known as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison L.L.P., is one of three big law firms that Mr. Trump has targeted with executive orders that essentially restricted their security clearance — something that is often needed to review government contracts for corporate clients — and barred lawyers from federal buildings. The three firms represented either lawyers or prosecutors in the criminal cases that had been brought against him before the 2024 election.
Paul Weiss, based in New York, is one of the nation’s biggest law firms; it has offices around the world and represents some of the biggest corporations.
In the email, Mr. Karp included an attachment that outlined the five main points of the agreement with Mr. Trump. At the top of the list was an understanding that “the bedrock principle of American justice is that it must be fair and nonpartisan for all, including my representing clients across the political spectrum.”
Under the agreement, Paul Weiss reiterated its commitment to “merits-based hiring, promotion and retention” and said it would hire an outside expert, within 14 days, to conduct “a comprehensive audit of all its employment practices.”
The agreement also outlined that Paul Weiss would contribute “$40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump’s term.” That sum is a small fraction of the roughly $200 million that the firm spends annually on pro bono work, according to a partner familiar with the matter.
Mr. Trump’s executive order had already begun rattling the law firm’s clients. Lawyers for Paul Weiss told a federal judge in New Jersey that Steven Schwartz, a former corporate general counsel whom the firm was representing in a foreign corrupt practices case, had terminated Paul Weiss as defense counsel.
Paul Weiss had considered mounting a legal challenge to the executive order but felt the risk to its business were too great, a person briefed on the matter said.
At the White House on Friday, Mr. Trump defended the executive orders against law firms, which have already cost some of them critical business. He said the firms “did bad things” and attacked him “ruthlessly, violently, illegally.”
Mr. Trump said law firms now “want to make deals,” an apparent reference to his deal with Paul Weiss. “They’re not babies,” he said. “They’re very sophisticated people.”
The copy of the agreement that Mr. Karp shared with Paul Weiss differed in some ways from Mr. Trump’s characterization of the deal in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Mr. Trump said the law firm had specifically agreed to not follow any D.E.I., or diversity, equity and inclusion, policies in its hiring practices. But there is no reference to D.E.I. in the agreement that Mr. Karp shared. Mr. Trump has mounted an aggressive campaign against D.E.I. in the federal government, labeling it a form of workplace discrimination.
Mr. Trump also said that during their meeting Mr. Karp had “acknowledged the wrongdoing of former Paul Weiss partner Mark Pomerantz.” Mr. Pomerantz had tried to build a criminal case against Mr. Trump several years ago while working at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
There was no mention of Mr. Pomerantz in the copy of the agreement circulated by Mr. Karp.
In a statement issued Thursday evening, Mr. Pomerantz denied that he had done anything wrong as a prosecutor.
Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
