Every
year,
Bloomberg
Law
honors
select
law
firms
as
Pro
Bono
Innovators.
This
year,
the
publication
profiled
Latham
&
Watkins
for
its
work:
Latham
&
Watkins’
key
pro
bono
matters
include
achieving
a
unanimous
US
Supreme
Court
victory
for
Ava
Tharpe,
a
student
with
severe
epilepsy,
in A.J.T.
v.
Osseo
Area
Schools.
The
ruling
established
that
children
with
disabilities
suing
for
education-related
discrimination
must
be
treated
like
all
other
plaintiffs.
Latham
also
used
its
experience
advising
on
low-carbon
energy
matters
in
a
novel
environmental
project
on
Chicago’s
South
Side.
The
firm’s
lawyers
prepared
a
renewable
natural
gas
offtake
agreement
that
allowed
Green
Era,
housed
at
a
remediated
brownfield,
to
optimize
the
creation
of
its
food
waste
recycler,
known
as
an
anaerobic
digester.
Hmmm.
It
seems
like
something
is
missing
from
this
account!
Wasn’t
there
some
other
pro
bono
story
about
Latham
this
year?
Something
big?
Something…
nine
figures
and
collapse
of
the
rule
of
law-adjacent?
That
said,
offering
the
government
$125
million
in
pro
bono
payola
to
bribe
Donald
Trump
into
ending
a
blatantly
unconstitutional
shakedown
campaign
is,
I
suppose,
a
kind
of
innovation.
It’s
certainly
not
a
pro
bono
strategy
anyone
had
heard
of
before
2025.
As
innovation
goes,
it’s
not
exactly
inventing
the
wheel.
More
like
unveiling
a
Cinnamon
Toast
flavored
Tide
Pod,
in
that
it’s
undeniably
a
new
twist,
ethical
considerations
aside.
But
also,
Latham
wasn’t
even
the
first
to
cop
a
deal
with
the
administration
—
Paul
Weiss
had
already
waved
the
white
flag
by
the
time
Latham
arrived
with
an
oversized
novelty
check
of
constitutional
complicity.
So
how
innovative
were
they
really?
The
Bloomberg
Law
write-up
runs
over
a
thousand
words
and
none
of
them
are
“Trump”
or
“executive
order”
or
“cowardly”
despite
each
of
these
being
essential
to
any
conversation
about
Latham’s
2025
pro
bono
campaign.
Without
even
a
whiff
about
the
firm’s
biggest
pro
bono
story
of
the
year,
the
piece
reads
like
putting
a
sticker
on
the
“Check
Engine”
light.
No
one
is
asking
Latham
to
self-flagellate.
No
one
expects
Bloomberg
to
write
diss
tracks.
But
if
you’re
going
to
throw
laurels,
at
least
acknowledge
the
head
you’re
placing
them
upon.
Maybe
sit
out
this
year’s
awards
circuit,
gang.
This
is
the
lesson
Paul
Weiss
learned
last
month
when
partner
Loretta
Lynch
collected
a
Champion
of
Justice
award
from
the
New
York
Bar
Foundation.
Protesters
gathered
outside.
A
heckler
inside
shouted
“For
Trump?”
while
Paul
Weiss
Chair
Brad
Karp
spoke
about
the
firm’s
pro
bono
accomplishments.
It
was,
shall
we
say,
not
the
dignified
evening
the
rubber
chicken
circuit
typically
provides.
It’s
not
that
Lynch
didn’t
deserve
the
award
or
that
Paul
Weiss
didn’t
perform
worthy
pro
bono
work
outside
of
their
deal.
Whether
either
firm
intended
it
that
way
or
not,
there’s
no
way
to
collect
awards
like
these
in
2025
without
it
coming
across
as
a
shameless
rehabilitation
tour.
Participating
in
a
puff
piece
for
a
trade
publication
only
makes
it
worse.
Now
is
the
time
to
keep
heads
down
and
just
do
the
work…
we’ll
let
you
know
when
you’ve
worked
your
way
back.
And
Latham
is
pursuing
good
pro
bono
projects.
The
A.J.T.
case
genuinely
matters,
delivering
for
children
with
disabilities
facing
discrimination
in
education.
Partner
Roman
Martinez
and
his
team
did
real
work
that
will
help
real
people.
Likewise,
Josh
Bledsoe’s
team
working
with
Green
Era
supported
that
group’s
initiatives
to
address
food
waste,
urban
farming,
and
renewable
energy
in
underserved
Chicago
communities.
Just
because
a
firm
capitulated
to
Trump
didn’t
mean
it
stopped
doing
good
pro
bono
work.
Or
at
least
didn’t
mean
it
necessarily
stopped
doing
good
pro
bono
work.
Because
groups
disfavored
by
the
Trump
administration,
particularly
those
working
with
immigrants,
have
found
themselves
dropped
by
longtime
Biglaw
pro
bono
partners.
The
damage
spilled
out
beyond
the
capitulators
too,
as
firms
registered
what
happened
with
the
firms
targeted
by
Trump
and
accordingly
walked
away
from
pro
bono
causes
to
avoid
ending
up
on
Trump’s
bad
side.
None
of
the
Surrender
Firms
will
admit
it,
but
when
the
most
well-resourced
firms
in
human
history
decided
that
protecting
the
rule
of
law
was
none
of
their
business,
the
rest
of
the
market
got
the
message
loud
and
clear:
keep
your
head
down
and
maybe
Trump
won’t
notice
you.
Every
firm
that
made
a
deal
with
Trump
made
life
worse
for
those
who
need
pro
bono
services.
There
should
be
no
awards
for
this.
Earlier:
Five
Top
Biglaw
Firms
Pledge
Their
Allegiance
To
Trump,
Promising
To
Provide
Legal
Services
‘Beyond’
His
Time
In
The
White
House
Heckler
Asks
‘For
Trump?’
As
Paul
Weiss
Describes
Pro
Bono
Work
At
Gala
Dinner
Biglaw’s
Trump
Deals
Have
Chilling
Effect
On
Pro
Bono
Joe
Patrice is
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Above
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Law
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Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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