US law firm Paul Weiss fired by client over Trump executive order

Published: 2025-03-19 17:32:45 ET CTSH

March 19 (Reuters) - Law firm Paul Weiss said in a court filing on Wednesday that a former executive facing criminal bribery charges has fired it as his defense counsel because of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order this month targeting the firm.

The filing, which asked a federal judge in New Jersey to allow Paul Weiss to withdraw from the case, said its client Steven Schwartz had terminated the firm due to Trump's March 14 order suspending any security clearances held by the firm's lawyers and restricting their access to government buildings and employees.

Paul Weiss and the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Other attorneys for Schwartz did not respond to a similar request.

Schwartz, the former chief legal officer of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, pleaded not guilty after he was charged in 2019 with violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a bribery scheme in India. The Trump administration in February paused its pending prosecutions under the foreign bribery law.

Wednesday's filing said the Justice Department is assessing the next steps in the case, and Schwartz "is concerned that the firm’s continued representation of him may negatively affect his ability to obtain a favorable review of his case" or create conflicts of interest.

Trump's executive order cited Paul Weiss' past association with Trump's legal and political adversaries and its internal diversity policies.

The president this month issued a similar executive order against law firm Perkins Coie. A judge in Washington temporarily blocked parts of that order on March 12, finding that Perkins Coie was likely to succeed in a lawsuit alleging the order violated the U.S. Constitution.

(Reporting by David Thomas; Editing by David Bario, Leslie Adler and Rod Nickel)