The deals do not appear to have been formalized in bilateral documents, signed by the parties and specifying respective duties, obligations and penalties for noncompliance. Though some of the firms have issued internal documents (which have quickly made their way to the media), none of these appear to have been approved by the Trump administration.
In addition, the two sides’ accounts of the agreements often seem asymmetrical. Trump, for example, in an executive order revoking the original executive order regarding Paul Weiss, claimed the firm “will engage in a remarkable change of course” and “specifically … has acknowledged the wrongdoing of its former partner Mark Pomerantz.” (Pomerantz left Paul Weiss in 2021 to work on a criminal investigation of Trump.) The firm made no such acknowledgment in public.
Such informality about legal obligations would ordinarily be anathema to a firm’s corporate practice. It would simply be unthinkable to negotiate a $100 million handshake deal without ensuring that the essential terms were clarified and set out in writing and then signed by both sides. It certainly would be a red flag for a firm’s malpractice insurance carrier.
Robert C. Post, a law professor at Yale, argued in an email that by acting with such speed that his adversaries have been caught by surprise, Trump has been unexpectedly successful in the opening months of his second term:
“The entire society has been taken aback by the suddenness and violence of Trump’s first 100 days. He has worked astonishing innovations in the exercise of executive power. Much of what he has done is obviously lawless.
“Trump has seized the high ground in the belief that possession is nine tenths of the law. He has dared the courts to defy him. And the courts are on this point cautious, because, as has been true for hundreds of years, their authority depends upon the force of their reason.
Many of Trump’s executive orders suggest that he cares little about legal reason. To speak figuratively, Trump cares only how many divisions the courts can mobilize. In such circumstances, the force of judicial reason depends upon public opinion, and Trump is presently still on a honeymoon with the sectors of the public that elected him.”
Trump’s strategy is to divide his adversaries, Post wrote:
“Unbound by law, immune to shame, the Trump administration has unleashed the full force of the executive branch on institutions of civil society like universities and law firms.
“Civil society is splintering under the assault. Harvard resists; Columbia bends the knee. Paul, Weiss bows in obeisance, Perkins Coie sues. Resistance is genuinely difficult, because the main institutions have left themselves exposed to blackmail from the federal government that has determined to trash all previous norms of behavior.”
