Paul, Weiss is committed to providing impactful pro bono legal assistance to individuals and organizations in need. Our program is all-encompassing, spanning the core issues facing our society.
Brad Karp Featured in Harvard Law School’s The Practice Magazine on Voting Rights
January 27, 2022
Firm Chairman Brad Karp was featured in an article, “Speakers Corner: Speaking Out on Election Integrity,” published in the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession’s magazine The Practice. Brad and Lucy Fato, executive vice president, general counsel and global head of communications and government affairs at AIG, were interviewed in-depth by the Center’s faculty director, David Wilkins, on the role of lawyers at law firms and companies in serving broader issues of public and social justice as part of the magazine’s “Election Lawyers” issue.
Brad discussed the widely-publicized statement spearheaded last year by Paul, Weiss and AIG, and signed by scores of major law firms and corporations, condemning laws in 47 states that would make voting more difficult; and why it is imperative for law firms and companies to take a stand against such pernicious legislative efforts.
“Lawyers have a duty to try to protect the rule of law. Lawyers have a duty to try to safeguard our democracy,” Brad said. “I feel our voices are one of our best resources. It’s one thing for law firm leaders to speak out, but to have corporations, through their general counsels, make an emphatic stand in support of the rule of law and in support of safeguarding our democracy—I thought that was going to be a very important and amplifying step.”
Brad also discussed Paul, Weiss’s efforts to protect voters, including our recent trial victory blocking a North Carolina voter ID law that would have disproportionately targeted Black communities; the challenges in trying to encourage law firm advocacy focused on specific state actions, when certain law firms have offices or represent important clients in those states; and other topics.
“We’ve engaged in a whole range of activities, both on a federal level and on a state-by-state level,” he said. “But the problem, sadly, is that [voting rights] restrictions keep cropping up all across the nation. Nineteen states now have either enacted or are in the process of trying to enact voter restriction legislation. So, it really does require the entire private bar, and, frankly, general counsel offices, to speak out and ensure that this insidious legislation doesn’t take hold in advance of the 2022 and 2024 elections. Nothing less than our democracy lies in the balance.”