Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing
  • Home
  • Hot Topics
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Big Law
  • Small Law
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing
No Result
View All Result
Home Big Law

Jones Day Is Divided Between ‘MAGA Jones Day’ And ‘Lawyers Who Enable MAGA Jones Day’

Daily Legal Briefing by Daily Legal Briefing
August 30, 2022
in Big Law
0
Jones Day Is Divided Between ‘MAGA Jones Day’ And ‘Lawyers Who Enable MAGA Jones Day’
4
SHARES
32
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Jones Day by David Lat

(Photo by David Lat)

Around legal journalism it’s almost cliché to note that Jones Day is the lawyerly face of the Trump movement. We’ve covered the firm’s rightward drift for years and, relatively recently, the rest of America started hearing a bit about it too. But most of the country is still unaware about this Cleveland law firm that transformed into an international conservative grievance engine.

David Enrich, author of the upcoming book Servants of the Damned (affiliate link), wrote a piece in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine about the role Jones Day played — and continues to play — in the Trumpist movement. There are a lot of wild details about how the Jones Day network turned the federal government into its personal playground, but what really shines through is how the firm’s right-wing hobby horse project is both one of the smallest and yet most important parts of the firm.

Enrich lays out the story of a corporate law firm that took its big bucks from representing Big Tobacco and Savings and Loan charlatans and decided to build an internal second firm devoted to reactionary causes. As Enrich explains, the ball really got rolling when Stephen Brogan took over as managing partner in 2003.

Brogan brought on a series of high-profile devotees of the Federalist Society — including leading Reagan and Bush administration lawyers like Michael Carvin and Noel Francisco — to work in the firm’s issues-and-appeals practice, which became a sort of in-house conservative think tank. Even as most of the firm’s lawyers remained focused on bread-and-butter work for big companies, Jones Day took on a growing list of ideologically charged cases and causes, including efforts by the ultraconservative Buckeye Institute to prevent the expansion of early voting in Ohio and challenge the legitimacy of the Obama administration’s newly inaugurated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

On one hand, congratulations on spotting a new market. On the other hand, this work is clearly a drop in the bucket for a global law firm — it’s really just an opportunity to divert firm largess toward eroding constitutional order for funsies! Most firms have a nice charity they build pro bono work around, Jones Day has throwing out Pennsylvania ballots. Potato, po-tah-to.

But this side project representing Republicans became more gravely serious when it morphed into creating the right-wing’s legal farm team ready to step in and yank the levers of power toward their own ends when Trump got into office. And, of course, populating the federal judiciary with its non-qualified associates!

Former Jones Day partner Mark Herrmann defended the firm in his Above the Law column today:

I have this to say about all of that: Jones Day has about 2,500 lawyers. How many of those 2,500 worked on Trump stuff? 20? 30? 50? I can’t believe it was more than that; 50 lawyers staffs up an awful lot of big projects.

So what’s the average schlub partner in the Cleveland, or Los Angeles, or London office of Jones Day thinking about while those 50-ish lawyers are off doing their Trump things? “That Trump stuff might be a little offensive to me, but I’ve got other things to worry about — like tending to big corporate litigation or mergers and acquisitions.”

True, if irrelevant. There are a ton of Jones Day lawyers out there doing entirely benign work. And their financial and reputational contributions are funneled into voter suppression and helping companies deny healthcare to women. It’s like one of those multi-level marketing cults where novice acolytes pump in money blissfully ignorant of what the “Operational Tauntaun Level 7s” do with all that cash. If you want to keep your head down and say “I just represent harmless opioid producers” that’s your right, but that doesn’t make it true — you’re a cog in a machine built to enable the legal arm of MAGA. 

Herrmann continues:

Moreover, be honest: Most of you would have an extraordinarily hard time turning down a high-ranking government job, even if the job were offered by an administration of which you were skeptical.

To be clear, if the Trump administration asked me to be Solicitor General, I’d have certainly taken the position if only for the LOLZ. The point is the Trump administration wasn’t going to ask me to be Solicitor General. Enrich isn’t criticizing individual Jones Day alums for choosing to join the Trump administration, his argument is that Jones Day deliberately positioned itself to be Donald Trump’s first call when looking for nominees. It may only be “50-ish lawyers,” but shrugging that off is akin to shrugging off a string of police shootings as “a couple of bad apples.”

But bad apples spoil bunches. Some of the most highly recruited attorneys in the Jones Day arsenal — with more liberal views than the firm’s most famous voices — complained about the firm’s increasingly toxic brand. Enrich reports that those folks have left. And the concerns have spread to some close to leadership:

Even some of Brogan’s allies told me they worried that the firm was approaching a point at which this would become a problem for clients. Big companies, after all, had been increasingly vocal about their opposition to Trump’s extreme policies and rhetoric. Brogan’s advisers suggested that he pull back. He forged ahead.

And that’s the real nut of it. As long as Jones Day brands itself as MAGA’s chief counsel, those non-partisan books of business are going to suffer. At some point rainmakers outside of the firm’s political arm — even if they’re also relatively conservative — are going to bolt just to avoid the headache.

And they should do it earlier than later because this issue isn’t going away.

How a Corporate Law Firm Led a Political Revolution [New York Times Magazine]

Earlier: A Short Defense Of Jones Day
Yesterday Was The Day America Learned What We’ve Known About Jones Day All Along
GOP Lawyer Slams Trump For Undermining Election Confidence Despite Long Career Of Undermining Election Confidence


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.





Click to Read Original Article

Previous Post

Fourth Amendment Decision Isn’t Going To Stop LSAT Or Law Schools From Scanning Your Room

Next Post

What Constitutes a “Hostile Work Environment” in San Diego?

Daily Legal Briefing

Daily Legal Briefing

The latest breaking legal news from across World all in one place.

Related Posts

Biglaw Probably Won’t Be Hemorrhaging Lawyers Via Layoffs Anytime Soon
Big Law

Cooley Sees A Double-Digit Income Drop Amid Layoffs Due To ‘Overcapacity’

by Daily Legal Briefing
March 25, 2023
It's Much Better Being A TV Lawyer…
Big Law

It's Much Better Being A TV Lawyer…

by Daily Legal Briefing
March 25, 2023
Smaller Firms Are Doing Their Best To Get Big With Lateral Partner Spree
Big Law

Smaller Firms Are Doing Their Best To Get Big With Lateral Partner Spree

by Daily Legal Briefing
March 25, 2023
When You Stiff A Biglaw Firm, They’re Probably Going To Come After You
Big Law

When You Stiff A Biglaw Firm, They’re Probably Going To Come After You

by Daily Legal Briefing
March 24, 2023
California Bar Exam – The Nightmare Continues
Big Law

The Lateral Associate Market Took A Real Hit Last Year

by Daily Legal Briefing
March 24, 2023
Next Post
What are the Three Types of Harassment?

What Constitutes a “Hostile Work Environment” in San Diego?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Premium Content

Are Conferences Still Worth It?

Are Conferences Still Worth It?

July 19, 2022
An Immigration Blueprint For Businesses To Hire Skilled Professional Ukrainian Refugees

Ukraine-Based AXDRAFT’s Resilience In The Midst Of War

August 18, 2022
What is the Value of a Tax Attorney for Denver Individuals and Businesses?

What is the Value of a Tax Attorney for Denver Individuals and Businesses?

August 8, 2022

Browse by Category

  • Big Law
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Hot Topics
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
  • Small Law

About US

Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines | Daily Legal Briefing.
Online coverage of breaking legal news and current law headlines from around the US. Top stories, videos, insight, and in-depth analysis.

Categories

  • Big Law
  • Breaking
  • Business
  • Hot Topics
  • Law School
  • Legal Tech
  • Small Law

Recent Updates

  • Cooley Sees A Double-Digit Income Drop Amid Layoffs Due To ‘Overcapacity’
  • It's Much Better Being A TV Lawyer…
  • Legal Practice Management Software | Above the Law Non-Event

© 2021 Daily Legal Briefing | Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines

No Result
View All Result
  • Contact Us
  • Home

© 2021 Daily Legal Briefing | Breaking Legal News & Current Law Headlines

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?