Interested in lit and wondering what their deal is?
Is their reputation hurt by this whole Trump’s legal crony image that seems to be in the news?
Was Cochran’s reputation hurt by representing killer OJ Simpson?
If Trump goes down everyone will blame Trump for being an idiot, if he doesn’t Kasowitz will get some credit. I don’t see how this is bad for him/them.
Go look at the cases Marc Kasowitz has litigated for Trump. He lost most of them. He even argued the totally opposite holding of Clinton v. Jones for presidential immunity. The guy comes off to me as one of those lawyers that just papers, threatens, and tries to intimidate you to death to squeeze out a good result. All bark, no bite (kind of like Trump).
I have no idea on the firm as a whole with any personal knowledge. Just an observation.
I doubt it hurts them, though. Jones Day has been riding the Trump wave and I doubt its brand is going to take a hit even though they are a much larger firm.
Since when is being the law firm of choice for the POTUS a bad thing?
Since Donald Trump became president…
Hey! My two cents, I interviewed at Kasowitz for a 2L summer position (2016)…I ended up going with another firm because Kas is extremely litigation-oriented. If you’re even a little unsure about whether you want to commit your foreseeable career to strictly lit, then I would look elsewhere. Also, the interview was kinda weird because all of the associates I interviewed with kept mentioning “layoffs” and “the mass exodus.” I honestly had no idea that was a thing. It spooked me. The impression I got is that the turnover rate is high and most people who aren’t fired, flee. The personality-types of a lot of the associates rang cold and overall, the office’s energy was very anxious and toxic. That was just my experience, though.
I have a friend who works there and he jokingly says the firm’s headcount is 99% Jewish. It’s not very diverse.
Anecdotally, well before Trump, I know a handful of 2014 grads that ended up at Kasowitz and every single one was miserable and lateralled or otherwise left by choice within a year or so.
If you’re a smart 2L looking for a firm to spend a summer, or a federal clerk or mid-level looking to lateral, and you don’t like Donald Trump (pretty common in New York), there are plenty of other firms to choose from. The positions Trump makes his lawyers take are really indefensible to liberal friends and family.
So I think Kasowitz will suffer from a recruiting perspective, which will medium-term erode the brand as they’re less able to attract talent in New York. Same might be said for Morgan Lewis.
What’s the joke?
I can confirm they’re already losing great attorneys over this.
Can also confirm. Know someone there that is leaving because of the Trump situation. Doesn’t want to stake his/her reputation on Kasowitz’s decision with the Trump stuff.
Since you’re both anonymous, do you mind sharing more details? Firms “lose” attorneys all the time. But is Kasowitz losing partners with books of business? That’s the real question.
Im the second of the anonymous poster. I don’t want to share more specifics without the blessing of the person in question, but I can say this person is not very junior. Otherwise I would like to be vague for now. I do know from the person the reason for leaving is reputational damage that has been done directly because of Trump-Kasowitz relationship. Doesn’t want to be involved with that boat.
This is too vague to be interesting or revealing. If the person leaving is a senior associate or service partner, who cares?
Touche, but I will ask the person in question if I can reveal more.
Sorry, I’m not trying to give you a hard time. But I think law students—who are the primary audience for these threads—struggle to appreciate what really matters. If Kasowitz gets less interest from students during OCI because of Marc Kasowitz’s representation of Trump, that’s not a serious problem for the firm. If a few associates lateral out because they’re embarrassed to work at a firm that others associate with Trump, that’s not a serious problem either. But if significant clients and/or business-generating partners bail because of Trump, that’s when you know that Kasowitz is in trouble.
Totally agree with you. But I would just say I don’t think Kasowitz is a firm on the up.
Yup. Big time partner gone. I was told if this partner ever left it was time to jump ship.
That’s big. If true, we’ll probably see this news in the legal press any day now.