Top Pro Bono Leader Resigns from Paul Weiss, a Law Firm Hit in Trump’s Crackdown

Signage is seen outside of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 30, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

BOSTON, (Reuters) – The head of the pro bono practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison said on Wednesday he was resigning from the Wall Street law firm just weeks after it struck a deal with Republican U.S. President Donald Trump to escape an executive order imperiling its business.

Steven Banks, the former commissioner of New York City’s social services agency, in a statement said he was leaving Paul Weiss to turn his attention to representing the Coalition for the Homeless with the Legal Aid Society.

His resignation came after Paul Weiss on March 20 reached a deal with the White House for Trump to lift an executive order that targeted the firm. The deal included a requirement for the firm to donate $40 million in free legal work, or pro bono services, to support mutually agreed-upon projects.

Banks, 68, said his “time to make a difference as a lawyer is narrowing.”

“This has been weighing on me since the November election,” Banks said. “At this historical moment, I know that I belong back on the front lines fighting for the things that I have believed in since I first walked in the door of the Legal Aid Society as a staff attorney in 1981.”

The New York Times first reported the news.

Banks who joined the firm in 2022 after working in former Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. Before that, he had led the Legal Aid Society, a legal aid organization.

Paul Weiss thanked Banks for his service. “We remain committed to providing impactful pro bono legal assistance to individuals and organizations in need,” the firm said.

Paul Weiss is among several law firms with ties to attorneys who have investigated Trump or been involved in challenges to his policies that have been targeted with executive orders aimed at restricting their business with the federal government.

Three other law firms have reached deals like that of Paul Weiss, with pledges to similarly donate legal services. Trump at an event on Tuesday suggested that he may use some of those firms to help the coal industry with leasing and in negotiations over tariffs.

Democrats and other lawyers have assailed law firms for striking such deals rather than fighting them in court, as three other firms are doing. Paul Weiss’s deal also called for it to not to engage in illegal diversity-related employment practices.

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REUTERS