Risk Updates — Firm Survives Disqualification Motion, Executive Client Representation Complexities, HR/PR Risk as Big Law Associate Action Escalates, Bar Backlash
Posted on“Connell Foley Survives Investment Firm’s DQ Bid In Bias Suit” —
- “A federal judge in New Jersey has rejected a Black-owned investment company’s request to disqualify a Connell Foley LLP attorney from representing the state in the investment firm’s bias case, reasoning that there is nothing showing the law firm or the lawyer previously represented the company.”
- “U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer found on Tuesday that Blueprint Capital Advisors LLC was unable to prove that Connell Foley attorney Elnardo J. Webster had a previous attorney-client relationship with Blueprint principal Jacob Walthour that would disqualify Webster from representing New Jersey in the instant dispute. The lawsuit accuses the state of committing to investing millions of dollars in the company’s alternative investment program, then passing on the firm’s confidential information to BlackRock.”
- “Blueprint Capital Advisors ‘falls well short of its burden to establish the existence of an attorney-client relationship between Mr. Walthour or BCA and Mr. Webster,’ Judge Hammer said in an opinion. ‘BCA has provided only vague assertions from Mr. Walthour that he considered Mr. Webster his attorney, while attaching multiple exhibits that demonstrate Mr. Walthour and Mr. Webster rarely spoke.”'”
- “In February, Walthour cited a conversation he had with Webster in 2016, as well as a follow-up email containing proprietary and confidential company information and an hourslong in-person meeting between him and Webster later in 2016, among other things, as evidence to back his disqualification bid.”
- “Judge Hammer determined the evidence shown was not enough to back Walthour’s claims of an attorney-client relationship, noting the brief nature of the phone calls, which totaled 11 minutes, and the principal’s admission they had met only a couple of times in person between 2016 and 2024.”
- “Mr. Walthour has presented only three emails he sent Mr. Webster,’ according to the opinion. ‘There is no evidence before the court to suggest that Mr. Webster responded to any of them. … Similarly, the two briefly texted in March 2022 and June 2022, and did not communicate again until June 2024.”
- “Additionally, the judge said he found it difficult to believe that an attorney-client relationship existed when Blueprint decided to go with different legal counsel to handle its bias suit, namely lawyers from Brown Rudnick LLP and Nagel Rice.”
- “According to evidence provided during discovery, it was determined that the investment company reached out to eight different firms in its efforts to engage legal counsel, none of them being Connell Foley, Judge Hammer said.”
- “‘Even as BCA and Mr. Walthour were actively seeking outside legal advice and retaining attorneys for this matter, there is no evidence that they retained, or made any effort to retain, Mr. Webster and his firm,’ according to the opinion. ‘Courts in this district have similarly found a movant’s retention of other attorneys to be highly relevant in determining whether an implied attorney-client relationship was formed.'”
“Trump Organization to fire legal adviser after Trump criticizes lawyer for Harvard work” —
- “U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at a lawyer for the Trump Organization who is also representing Harvard University in its lawsuit against his administration, saying the company should fire him.”
- “Trump’s post on his social media platform Truth Social did not name the attorney, but it appeared to describe prominent Washington lawyer William Burck of law firm Quinn Emanuel.”
- “The Trump Organization is run by Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. Asked whether Burck still worked for the Trump Organization, Eric Trump said in a statement on Thursday: ‘I view it as conflict and I will be moving in a different direction.’ He did not elaborate.”
- “Burck is a lead attorney for Harvard in a lawsuit filed this week accusing the Trump administration of illegally moving to freeze more than $2 billion in federal funding as part of a pressure campaign against the research institution and other schools.”
- “In January, the Trump Organization said it retained Burck, a longtime Republican insider, as an outside ethics adviser to help develop and maintain internal policies to ward against conflicts of interest.”
- “Burck and Quinn Emanuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”
- “The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
- “A representative for Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
- “Burck, a former White House lawyer for former Republican President George W. Bush, has also represented Steve Bannon and other Trump backers. Quinn Emanuel, with more than 1,000 lawyers, is a longtime law firm for Tesla CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk.”
- “Harvard’s lawsuit is not the firm’s only case opposing the administration. Quinn Emanuel is separately representing wrongly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia in his lawsuit seeking his return from El Salvador to the United States.”
- “Scrutiny on law firm deals with the Trump administration, both from within and beyond Big Law, mounted this week, with additional associates announcing resignations at Kirkland & Ellis and a workers’ rights group claiming Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom unfairly limited employee discussions about it.”
- “Those moves came as more Democratic lawmakers sent another batch of letters requesting details about the deals and urging law firms to disavow them.”
- “At least three more lawyers on LinkedIn this week pointed to the deals with Trump as reason to move on from their firm. In separate posts, Harold Grigsby III, Kevin Decker and Maggie Hagen, all Washington, D.C. litigation associates at Kirkland, pointed to the firm’s commitment to provide pro bono and other legal services — while avoiding a Trump executive order — as the impetus for their resignations from the firm.”
- “‘To me, these actions set a troubling precedent,’ Hagen wrote. ‘When law firms yield to political pressure, it compromises the independence of our profession and threatens our ability to zealously advocate for our clients.'”
- “‘I am disappointed by the decision of the world’s most powerful and successful law firm not to fight back against this unlawful incursion, especially when other firms are already doing so successfully,’ Decker wrote, referring to Kirkland’s status as the highest-grossing revenue in the world.”
- “‘This is not neutrality, this is complicity. Complicity I can no longer be a part of,’ Grigsby stated.”
- “A spokesperson for Kirkland did not immediately comment on the announcements. Other firms, though, have also seen resignations for similar reasons after their deals with Trump were struck, including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Latham & Watkins, and Willkie, Farr & Gallagher.”
- “Despite law firms’ insistence that they will stick to pro bono categories of the deals, including work for veterans and combating anti-Semitism, Trump has openly suggested he will ask the firms to handle coal leasing matters and negotiate trade talks.”
- “Separately, the National Institute for Workers’ Rights on Thursday reportedly filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The group claimed the firm restricted access to email distribution lists where firm associates would discuss its agreement with the administration, express concerns about it, and submit resignations, among other things.”
- “‘Skadden interfered with these activities by restricting access to email distribution lists in order to suppress employee discussions about the firm’s policy changes,’ the labor group said.”
“Memphis Law Firm Leaves Tennessee Bar Association for Its Silence on Trump” —
- “A Memphis law firm left the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) Tuesday after the firm said the group had ‘voted to remain silent’ on President Donald Trump’s actions to erode the rule of law and an independent judiciary.”
- “Donati Law ended more than 40 years of membership with TBA Tuesday in a letter made public on Facebook Wednesday. The Midtown law firm focuses on employment law, personal injury, and criminal defense, according to its website.”
- “‘It is with great sadness that we feel obligated to leave the TBA due to its refusal to take a stand consistent with the ideals of the Rule of Law and an independent judiciary in the face of extreme threats from the executive branch,’ reads the letter addressed to TBA leaders.”
- “The letter says, specifically, that the TBA ‘once again voted to remain silent’ on April 14. Details of the triggering event on this date were not immediately clear, but Donati attorney Bryce Ashby said it was related to activities from another Memphis attorney, Brian Faughnan, of Faughnan Law.”
- “One his blog, Faughnan on Ethics, Faughnan said many bar associations, like the American Bar Association, have spoken out against Trump actions that erode the rule of law. In an April 8th blog post, though, Faughnan said, ‘the Tennessee Bar Association and the Memphis Bar Association have not.'”
- “After private talks with the TBA, he said on April 16, he’d become ‘more and more convinced that the TBA is actually determined to remain silent in an unforgivable act of cowardice.'”
- “Finally, Donati said Trump has ordered retribution against law firms because of positions they have taken on behalf of clients or because of attorneys hired by their firms.”
- “‘These are but a few examples of the full-blown assault on the rule of law and the judiciary,’ reads the letter. ‘These actions damage our system of justice and must be condemned.”
- “‘Remaining silent is complicity. The TBA has stayed silent and once again voted to remain silent on April 14, despite the TBA’s self-professed role as a ‘strong advocate for the profession and the development and maintenance of our justice system.’ As a result, we can no longer continue our membership with the Tennessee Bar Association.'”
“Abbe Lowell Aids Letitia James After Winston & Strawn Exit” —
- “Abbe Lowell is defending New York Attorney General Letitia James against a Trump administration investigation after leaving Winston & Strawn, his firm of the past seven years.”
- “The firm declined to say when Lowell departed. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”
- “Big Law firms have been trying to create distance between themselves and matters deemed unpopular by Trump, and eight firms besides Paul Weiss struck deals with him. Banks declined to comment on whether his departure from Paul Weiss was tied to his desire to continue representing James.”
- “Lowell joined Winston & Strawn in 2018 from Norton Rose Fulbright. He was a co-chair of Winston’s white collar and regulatory and investigations practice group and through his career has had a deep bench of high-profile clients who fall on both sides of the political aisle.”
- “He represented President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in the investigation of alleged Russian collusion during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Lowell was also lead defense lawyer for former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden in a 2024 criminal trial.”
- “Lowell sent a letter Thursday to US Attorney General Pam Bondi that responds to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte’s April 14 criminal referral concerning James. The referral accuses James of falsifying property records for a home she owns in Virginia by saying it’s her primary residence and alleges she understated the number of rooms at her home in Brooklyn.”
- “‘No one is better than you to recognize that Attorney General James is being targeted’ for her work, Lowell told Bondi in the letter, obtained by Bloomberg Law. ‘Trump has singled out Attorney General James dating back to her campaign in 2018, and ever more so during and after the trial and verdict in New York.'”