Yearly, Bloomberg Regulation honors choose regulation companies as Professional Bono Innovators. This yr, the publication profiled Latham & Watkins for its work:
Latham & Watkins’ key professional bono issues embrace attaining a unanimous US Supreme Court docket victory for Ava Tharpe, a scholar with extreme epilepsy, in A.J.T. v. Osseo Space Faculties. The ruling established that kids with disabilities suing for education-related discrimination should be handled like all different plaintiffs. Latham additionally used its expertise advising on low-carbon power issues in a novel environmental mission on Chicago’s South Aspect. The agency’s legal professionals ready a renewable pure gasoline offtake settlement that allowed Inexperienced Period, housed at a remediated brownfield, to optimize the creation of its meals waste recycler, generally known as an anaerobic digester.
Hmmm. It looks like one thing is lacking from this account! Wasn’t there another professional bono story about Latham this yr? One thing massive? One thing… 9 figures and collapse of the rule of law-adjacent?
That mentioned, offering the government $125 million in pro bono payola to bribe Donald Trump into ending a blatantly unconstitutional shakedown marketing campaign is, I suppose, a variety of innovation. It’s actually not a professional bono technique anybody had heard of earlier than 2025. As innovation goes, it’s not precisely inventing the wheel. Extra like unveiling a Cinnamon Toast flavored Tide Pod, in that it’s undeniably a brand new twist, moral issues apart.
But in addition, Latham wasn’t even the first to cop a cope with the administration — Paul Weiss had already waved the white flag by the point Latham arrived with an outsized novelty examine of constitutional complicity. So how revolutionary have been they actually?
The Bloomberg Regulation write-up runs over a thousand phrases and none of them are “Trump” or “govt order” or “cowardly” regardless of every of those being important to any dialog about Latham’s 2025 professional bono marketing campaign. With out even a whiff in regards to the agency’s greatest professional bono story of the yr, the piece reads like placing a sticker on the “Test Engine” mild.
Nobody is asking Latham to self-flagellate. Nobody expects Bloomberg to jot down diss tracks. However for those who’re going to throw laurels, no less than acknowledge the pinnacle you’re putting them upon.
Possibly sit out this yr’s awards circuit, gang. That is the lesson Paul Weiss learned last month when companion Loretta Lynch collected a Champion of Justice award from the New York Bar Basis. Protesters gathered exterior. A heckler inside shouted “For Trump?” whereas Paul Weiss Chair Brad Karp spoke in regards to the agency’s professional bono accomplishments. It was, let’s assume, not the dignified night the rubber hen circuit sometimes offers. It’s not that Lynch didn’t deserve the award or that Paul Weiss didn’t carry out worthy professional bono work exterior of their deal, however that is what occurs when a agency tries to gather kudos for professional bono work in the identical calendar yr that they pledged free work to Trump.
Whether or not both agency meant it that approach or not, there’s no solution to acquire awards like these in 2025 with out it coming throughout as a shameless rehabilitation tour. Collaborating in a puff piece for a commerce publication solely makes it worse.
Now could be the time to maintain heads down and simply do the work… we’ll let while you’ve labored your approach again. And Latham is pursuing good professional bono initiatives. The A.J.T. case genuinely issues, delivering for kids with disabilities dealing with discrimination in training. Accomplice Roman Martinez and his workforce did actual work that can assist actual folks. Likewise, Josh Bledsoe’s workforce working with Inexperienced Period supported that group’s initiatives to deal with meals waste, city farming, and renewable power in underserved Chicago communities. Simply because a agency capitulated to Trump didn’t imply it stopped doing good professional bono work.
Or no less than didn’t imply it essentially stopped doing good professional bono work.
As a result of teams disfavored by the Trump administration, notably these working with immigrants, have found themselves dropped by longtime Biglaw pro bono partners. The injury spilled out past the capitulators too, as companies registered what occurred with the companies focused by Trump and accordingly walked away from pro bono causes to keep away from ending up on Trump’s dangerous aspect. Not one of the Give up Companies will admit it, however when probably the most well-resourced companies in human historical past determined that defending the rule of regulation was none of their enterprise, the remainder of the market acquired the message loud and clear: preserve your head down and possibly Trump gained’t discover you.
Each agency that made a cope with Trump made life worse for many who want professional bono providers. There ought to be no awards for this.
Earlier: Five Top Biglaw Firms Pledge Their Allegiance To Trump, Promising To Provide Legal Services ‘Beyond’ His Time In The White House
Heckler Asks ‘For Trump?’ As Paul Weiss Describes Pro Bono Work At Gala Dinner
Biglaw’s Trump Deals Have Chilling Effect On Pro Bono
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be at liberty to email any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky for those who’re concerned about regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of school sports activities information.
