Bloomberg Law, Davis Polk Axes Associate Over Writings Criticizing Trump:
Wall Street’s Davis Polk & Wardwell fired a junior attorney following warnings over his op-eds knocking the Trump administration, according to the lawyer.
Ryan Powers, a former Davis Polk associate, says the firm fired him June 12. His profile was removed from the site immediately, Powers said in an interview. The Harvard Law graduate joined the firm’s tax group October 2023 and worked on deals for Cintas Corp. and Penske Truck Leasing. …
Law.com, Associates—’Professionally Cautious’ by Nature—Have Found a Voice in the Trump Era:
Up until mid-June, Ryan W. Powers was an associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell who wrote a series of political and social commentary pieces in newspapers this year. The firm asked him to stop, saying it went against firm policies. He did not, and he was fired.
Powers then went back to his Substack and LinkedIn to cover his firing and his indignation over the whole matter.
Power is one of many Big Law associates this year who have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with their firms’ silence or capitulation to the Trump administration. Several associates at various firms this year have signed their names to open letters, quit their firms on social media, or written sharp resignation letters that circulated firmwide — all unusual activity for a rank of lawyers in Big Law who are told to stay quiet and not make news.
Vivia Chen, Was That Davis Polk Associate Asking for It?:
Was he heroic, naive or full of himself?
- ABA Journal, Davis Polk Associate Says He Was Fired After Refusing to Stop Publishing Columns on Legal Issues
- Above the Law, Biglaw Firm Allegedly Fires Associate Over Anti-Trump Op-Eds
- Law360, Fired Davis Polk Associate Claims BigLaw Stifles Dissent
- Ryan Powers, Inside Big Law: The Cost of Silence is Democracy Itself
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