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For Big Law: Is That Your Final Answer?

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April 16, 2025 2:29 p.m.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 29: Boris Epshteyn, advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump walks to the courtroom during a break in Trump's criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 29, 2024 in New York City.... NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 29: Boris Epshteyn, advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump walks to the courtroom during a break in Trump's criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 29, 2024 in New York City. The former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Yuki Iwamura - Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Crain’s Chicago has a piece on the law firm deals. It focuses on Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis. The conclusion is the same. There’s no written document. It’s only the bullet-pointed text they shared internally and which Trump posted on Truth Social. When I wrote about this yesterday I realized that there was something that seems so clear that I don’t seem to have said it explicitly enough. So let’s do that: the real goal here is to gain leverage over the firms – regardless of what these notional agreements say – and stop them from taking cases that are in any way unhelpful to Trump, including but not limited to lawsuits fighting his various illegal actions. But the most interesting new information I learned yesterday I found in this article in The Wall Street Journal, which explains that the entire negotiation process is being lead by Trump lawyer and fixer Boris Epshteyn.

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