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Paul Weiss faced executive order threatening firm business

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Firm will drop diversity policies, provide free legal

work,

White House said

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Some lawyers said deal was capitulation

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Experts call Trump's actions unprecedented attack on law

firms

By Mike Scarcella and Sara Merken

March 21 (Reuters) - Powerful Wall Street law firm Paul

Weiss faced heavy criticism on Friday over a deal it struck with

the White House to escape an executive order imperiling the

firm's business, even as some lawyers said the firm faced few

other options.

Lawyers at some companies and law firms skewered Paul Weiss

online for appearing to capitulate to Republican President

Donald Trump by scrapping internal diversity policies and

donating $40 million in free legal work to support his

administration's causes.

"Embarrassed to be associated with this firm today," a

lawyer at Amazon Web Services who previously worked at Paul

Weiss wrote on LinkedIn.

The lawyer and Amazon ( AMZN ), a Paul Weiss client, did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp said in an internal email to

its lawyers, viewed by Reuters, that the agreement with Trump

was in line with the firm's principles, including a commitment

to remaining politically independent.

Trump has attacked major law firms for weeks over their work

for his Democratic adversaries and their internal diversity

policies, amid broader moves by the president to use funding

cuts and other measures to pressure universities and private

companies to follow his priorities.

A person familiar with Paul Weiss' decision to make a deal

with Trump said it was facing an existential threat. Paul Weiss

had already lost at least one white-collar client over Trump's

order, court records show.

Experts said Trump's orders against Paul Weiss and another

big firm, Perkins Coie, marked an unprecedented attack on their

ability to do business.

The order against Perkins Coie was "life-threatening" to the

firm, its lawyer said last week in that firm's ongoing lawsuit

against the administration.

Asked for comment, the White House referred to Trump's

social media post on his agreement with Paul Weiss.

Trump's order against Paul Weiss cited its association with

a prosecutor who investigated the president and the firm's

internal diversity policies. The order suspended security

clearances for the firm's lawyers and restricted their access to

government buildings and officials.

Trump in an earlier order suspended security clearances for

two lawyers at Covington & Burling who represent Jack Smith, the

U.S. special counsel who brought criminal charges against Trump

in two cases.

On Monday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

sent demands to 20 major law firms for detailed information

about their diversity initiatives and racial and gender

demographics, expanding the administration's legal industry

crackdown.

Paul Weiss could face blowback from some of its lawyers and

clients over its truce with Trump, said University of

Connecticut law professor and legal industry expert Leslie

Levin, but she said the firm likely saw a deal as the safest way

forward.

The White House said on Thursday that Trump met with Karp, a

longtime Democratic fundraiser and top outside lawyer for

financial companies, and worked out the accord.

Marc Elias, a former Perkins Coie partner and top lawyer for

Democrats, assailed the Paul Weiss agreement in a social media

post late on Thursday, calling it "a stain on the firm, every

one of its partners, and the entire legal profession."