Entropy
rules
the
universe,
no
matter
how
closely
you
flirt
with
authoritarians.
Once
upon
a
time,
Marc
Kasowitz
and
Eric
Herschmann
were
partners
at
Kasowitz’s
eponymous
firm.
Now
Herschmann
is
suing
Kasowitz
seeking
“millions”
in
unpaid
compensation
and
alleging
a
pattern
of
financial
mismanagement.
Then
Donald
Trump
decided
to
enter
politics
and
everything
fell
apart
as
these
two
decided
to
hitch
their
wagons
to
his
sundowning
star.
Back
in
2017,
Trump
sauntered
into
office
convinced
that
his
longtime
real
estate
litigator
could
serve
as
his
White
House
consigliere.
It
did
not
go
well.
Between
the
ethics
complaints
and
diplomatic
blunders,
Kasowitz
retreated
from
the
presidential
power.
Toward
the
end
of
Trump’s
first
term,
while
the
boss
told
Americans
to
consider
injecting
themselves
with
Lysol
and
horse
dewormers,
Eric
Herschmann
decided
to
take
his
turn
in
the
Trump
orbit.
He
showed
up
just
in
time
to
be
with
Trump
on
January
6
—
oops
—
but
embarked
on
a
reasonably
successful
rehabilitation
effort
as
someone
out
there
kept
telling
the
press
amusing
anecdotes
about
him
bluntly
clowning
on
the
most
decidedly
clownish
Trump
lawyers.
Most
of
America
remembers
Herschmann
for
his
genuinely
eloquent
advice
that
Coup4Dummies
lawyer
John
Eastman
needed
to
“get
a
great
f***ing
criminal
defense
lawyer.”
While
both
Kasowitz
and
Herschmann
once
reached
for
the
stars
with
their
proximity
to
power,
they
are
now
barely
remembered
among
Trump’s
cast
of
supporting
characters.
But
brash,
litigious
egos
are
a
feature
that
Trump
selects
for
in
his
lawyers,
meaning
it
was
only
a
matter
of
time
before
they
earned
a
chaotic
post-credits
scene
in
the
Trump
Cinematic
Universe.
As
the
New
York
Law
Journal
explains:
“The
complaint
claims
that
Kasowitz
overextended
the
firm’s
finances
by
promised
lucrative
compensation
guarantees
to
lateral
partners,
who
then
failed
to
generate
enough
business.
Herschmann
also
alleges
the
firm
began
offering
‘heavily
discounted
hourly
fee
rates’
to
induce
important
clients
not
to
switch
representation.”
Herschmann
claims
that
he
didn’t
know
about
this
at
the
time
and
was
“induced”
to
return
to
the
firm
after
his
January
6
misadventures
“by
claims
of
financial
stability,”
and
that
he
wouldn’t
have
come
back
if
he
had
a
better
sense
of
its
financial
state.
“Kasowitz
would
use
the
firm’s
profits
to
pay
off
most
or
all
of
the
bank
debt
by
the
end
of
each
year,
which
left
grossly
insufficient
profits
to
pay
the
partner
distributions
Kasowitz
wished
to
pay
to
keep
partners
from
leaving
the
firm,”
the
lawsuit
claimed.
“To
cover
up
these
financial
problems,
Kasowitz
then
secretly
went
into
further
debt.”
For
a
story
that’s
only
tangentially
about
Trump,
there
are
a
lot
of
allegations
that
would
be
right
at
home
in
a
story
about
running
an
Atlantic
City
casino
into
the
ground.
Or,
for
that
matter,
in
a
story
about
the
current
federal
budget
under
Trump.
In
a
lengthy
statement,
a
Kasowitz
spokesperson
said
the
lawsuit
was
“written
for
the
media,
not
for
the
court.”
“As
Mr.
Herschmann
is
well
aware,
any
dispute
concerning
the
firm
is
subject
to
confidential
arbitration,”
the
statement
said.
“For
30
years,
Mr.
Herschmann
was
paid
extraordinarily
well
for
relatively
few
billable
hours
and
small
amounts
of
business.
In
a
case
of
‘no
good
deed
goes
unpunished,’
when
his
outrageous
compensation
demands
near
the
end
of
his
career
were
not
met,
he
decided
to
file
a
thoroughly
false
public
pleading
violating,
among
other
things,
the
partnership
agreement’s
confidential
arbitration
requirement.
Our
filings
will
address
Mr.
Herschmann’s
frivolous
claims,
and
his
own
conduct
as
a
partner
in
the
firm.”
“Mr.
Herschmann
was
paid
extraordinarily
well
for
relatively
few
billable
hours
and
small
amounts
of
business.”
Speaking
of
Trump
parallels,
the
firm
couldn’t
get
through
its
statement
without
hurling
a
random
insult
Herschmann’s
way.
If
he
brought
in
enough
business
to
get
paid
more
under
his
agreement,
it
doesn’t
really
matter
if
the
firm
wants
to
claim
they
were
just
being
generous.
The
response
begins
by
accusing
Herschmann
of
playing
to
the
media…
and
immediately
pivots
to
yeah,
and
he
sucks
too!
I
mean,
what
are
we
doing
here,
people?
But
it
allows
the
firm
to
inject
a
little
bit
more
Trump-branded
chaos
into
the
proceedings.
No
wonder
he
liked
these
guys.
Marc
Kasowitz,
Kasowitz
Sued
Over
Alleged
Unpaid
Wages,
Financial
Mismangment
[New
York
Law
Journal]
Earlier:
Oh
Look,
It’s
A
Former
Biglaw
Partner
Hanging
Out
With
Trump
Before
The
Capitol
Riot!
Axios
Story
Confirms
That
Trump
Lawyers
REALLY
Want
To
Be
Able
To
Re-Enter
Polite
Society
Everyone
Thought
John
Eastman
Was
Crazy
And
Just
Kind
Of…
Let
Him
Do
It
Anyway
Trump
White
House
Lawyer
Eric
Herschmann
Called
BS
On
Trump’s
Personal
Lawyers
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
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Follow
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