On Thursday night, President Donald Trump announced he agreed to withdraw his executive order targeting Paul Weiss after the elite law firm agreed that it "will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies."
But that line is nowhere to be found in an internal version of the agreement about the Paul Weiss executive order sent to its own lawyers about 30 minutes later, according to a copy obtained by Business Insider.
Instead, it only says the firm "affirms its commitment to merit-based hiring, promotion, and retention" and will hire experts to do a "comprehensive audit of all of its employment practices" — language that is also in the version Trump posted on Truth Social.
The dueling documents emerged after Trump issued an executive order stripping security clearances from Paul Weiss lawyers and threatening government contracts with the firm. Both versions show Trump agreed to rescind this order after the firm promised $40 million in pro bono legal services and made other commitments.
Paul Weiss's version also omits a statement from the White House saying that the law firm's chairman, Brad Karp, "acknowledged the wrongdoing of former Paul, Weiss partner, Mark Pomerantz, the grave dangers of Weaponization, and the vital need to restore our System of Justice" in a meeting with Trump.
Pomerantz, a frequent target of Trump's ire and a former Paul Weiss partner, joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office during its criminal investigation into Trump's hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels.
Pomerantz left the prosecutor's office before the case went to trial and wrote a book about his frustrations with how the investigation was handled. A jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documents in order to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. He was sentenced to an "unconditional discharge" — essentially, no punishment — and has filed an appeal.
The Trump administration has taken a special interest in the diversity initiatives of Big Law firms. The acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Andrea Lucas, a Trump appointee, sent letters to 20 elite firms this week with detailed questions about their diversity programs.
Representatives for Paul Weiss and the White House didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the discrepancy. In an email sent to firm staff, Karp said the deal was consistent with the firm's principles.
"With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus — as we always do — to our clients, our work, our colleagues, and our firm," he wrote.
In some ways, Paul Weiss is like every other big law firm. Its attorneys work late nights on deals and defense work for some of America's biggest companies, and top partners charge more than $2,000 an hour for their advice.
But in important ways, it's not. While many law firms' lawyers and staff skew Democratic, Paul Weiss has long been close with Democratic power players. Its partners include two members of former president Barack Obama's cabinet, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Its chairman, Brad Karp, was a major fundraiser for Kamala Harris, and its partner, Karen Dunn, helped Harris prepare for debates.
Sabina Lippman, the managing partner of the legal recruiting firm CenterPeak who has worked with Paul Weiss, said law-firm partners and leaders she's spoken to felt settling was smart. A firm could lose business if it got sucked into a long-running political fight, she said.
"Everyone has been in uniform agreement that this was a brilliant and well executed move," she said in a text message.
Perkins Coie, which was also targeted by one of Trump's executive orders, sued the administration and promptly won a temporary restraining order from a judge. Perkins said in court papers that it faced existential risks from the executive order, which would require its clients with government contracts to reveal whether they use the firm — creating pressure to cut ties.
The president issued a narrower memorandum targeting any lawyers at the Big Law firm Covington & Burling who may have assisted former Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who filed two now-dismissed criminal cases against Trump. The law firm hasn't publicly reacted to the order.
At an Oval Office event Friday, Trump said big law firms "all want to make deals" after they "went after me for four years — ruthlessly, violently, illegally."
"They're not babies. They're very sophisticated people," Trump said. "Those law firms did bad things."
On Thursday night, Skadden Arps associate Rachel Cohen resigned from her position due to what she described as an inadequate response to Trump's actions.
Skadden "has been given time and opportunity to do the right thing," she wrote in her resignation letter, which went viral on LinkedIn. "Thus far, we have not. This is a moment that demands urgency."
Brent Griffiths contributed reporting.
