What's it like inside those law firms?

It’s mid-November 2026, post-midterms — and I’m wondering what it’s like to be inside various types of law firms:

Those that stood up to the patently unconstitutional Executive Orders from the administration of 2025. I am looking at you and sending you your virtual flowers:
Those that folded in light of similar, equally unconstitutional Executive Orders.
- No links to these firms. Google them if you don’t know who cut a deal when they could have stood up for the Rule of Law.
Those that were not targeted and therefore did not make a deal, but likewise have stood down or stayed quiet while the Rule of Law — on which their firm’s livelihood depends — has been under full frontal assault.
- Did they stand up for their fellow firms that were targeted?
- Did they say or do anything to support the Rule of Law when it has been so plainly attacked?
- Did they step up their Pro Bono work, which has dried up for too many non-profits in their time of acute need? Or step back?

These questions have come to mind not just as the political winds seem to be shifting as of last week. I have it on my mind as students are beginning to be hired for law firms already this Fall. The timeline for hiring of young lawyers has gotten earlier and earlier. If you just started your three years of studying for the Juris Doctorate in the United States this fall, you may already be interviewing for your first legal jobs. It is not the case that that first firm that you choose to work for, in your 1L fall, will be your ultimate employer, but you never know it won’t, either.

I have the great privilege to teach a class of law students each year, and maybe even two this year. It’s no longer my day job, but I love being a Visiting Professor and I do care about the study of law as well as the practice of the profession. So it’s on my mind: will the strongest, most promising students factor this firm-level decision-making and positioning in their job selection? And will clients follow? What kind of conversations are the leaders of these firms having this month?

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And also, there’s AI in Fall 2026. While no sensible clients have turned everything over to an AI counselor at this stage — if they have, anyway, they are unlikely to fare well — it’s also the case that no law firm can pretend AI doesn’t exist. As they seek to hire new associates, will the classes of new hires shrink? And will these firms choose their new associates at all based on the skills of those lawyers in using and adapting AI in the practice of law? Are they working on their own adaptations of AI to improve their practices?

I know I would be thinking that way if I were still in a law firm — and I certainly think that way, as a client of law firms and as the president of an institution with a (crack!) legal department, which does indeed hire brilliant lawyers from time to time. And I hope in my small way to be able to prepare a set of students for the work that lies ahead, with and distinct from AI.

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A couple things I can say for sure: I think it is rational for a client to choose a firm that is willing to stand up for the Rule of Law to serve as your legal representatives, no matter who is in power or what party controls what. This is not a partisan statement; this is a statement about what I look for in a lawyer that we are going to hire, and to pay them a healthy hourly rate, to represent us and to advise us. A law firm that has bent a knee in reaction to an unconstitutional Executive Order is not the kind of firm I want fighting my corner or helping guide my decisions as an executive.

And I think it makes sense to hire lawyers and law firms who can use the best tools available to represent you with the greatest possible skill and acumen.

I know as a client — my typical role these days, more so than as a lawyer or law teacher — I keep these things in front of mind.