Big Law Lawyers Are at Ground Zero in Trump’s University Fights

Big Law attorneys are in the middle of Donald Trump’s attack on universities—even as their firms navigate separate quagmires with the president.

The lawyers hold board seats at schools such as Harvard, Columbia and Penn. The roles are valued for prestige, networking, and access to events. But this year they’re also requiring a heavy dose of legal skills as universities navigate their way through protests, unhappy donors, and threatened funding streams.

“It will be useful that these lawyers have knowledge of the law and the limits of what Trump can get away with,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor who studies ethics and the legal profession. “The far more important skill is the ability to preserve the mission of the schools without drawing the attention and ire of the administration.”

The board roles show that law firms targeted for their connections to Trump’s enemies also risk having their lawyers cross him through their college leadership. The Trump administration has threatened funding streams for the universities, variously alleging they have tolerated antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, pushed improper transgender policies, and discriminated against Whites and males.

The president has also threatened law firms’ security clearances, client government contracts, and access to federal buildings. His administration amassed a treasure trove of nearly $1 billion in free legal services on shared causes by firms seeking to avoid punitive action from the White House. Four others took the administration to court to strike down executive orders against them.

The universities, like the law firms, have been faced with a precarious choice: settle or sue. While Columbia University agreed to make a series of programmatic changes, Harvard University refused, suing the Trump administration to reclaim $2.2 billion in federal funding.

Nobody is straddles the worlds of universities and law firms under Trump scrutiny more than Bill Burck, co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Burck, who serves on the board of Fox Corp., represents Harvard in its lawsuit and had to give up his role as a Trump Organization adviser as a result.

The lawyers in board roles at universities are in a familiar place by advising scrutinized institutions, Roiphe said. “These lawyers made their way to the top of their profession,” she said, “by masterfully exercising judgment in difficult moments.”

Here are the lawyers, all of whom attended the universities they represent. They all declined to comment or didn’t return requests for comment.

Jeh Johnson, a partner at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, was elected co-chair of Columbia University’s Board of Trustees as of April 24. That was two weeks before police arrested 80 pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied the school’s library. The university in March agreed to ban masks and expand police powers after Trump froze $400 million in federal funds for the school. For Johnson, helping to direct a large, complex organization such as Columbia, with about 50,000 students and employees, is nothing new. He led more than 240,000 workers at the Department of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama. On June 30 he will end a 41-year, on-and-off affiliation with Paul Weiss, one of the firms that made a deal with Trump.

Julissa Reynoso has been on Columbia’s board since 2018, the year after she first joined Winston & Strawn. Reynoso left the firm to work as chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden and as ambassador to Spain and Andorra before rejoining last year. She serves on the firm’s executive committee while working on commercial litigation, regulatory enforcement, international arbitration, and cross-border disputes, according to her Winston & Strawn profile.

Paul Weiss partner Ted Wells

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Theodore Wells, co-chair of Paul Weiss’ litigation department, has served on Harvard Corp.'s board since 2013. A dean of New York’s white-collar defense bar, his decades of litigation experience are coming in handy for Harvard as it sues the Trump administration. In 2019 he successfully defended Exxon Mobil Corp. against charges by the state of New York that the company misled investors on the costs of climate change. He also represented billionaire Leon Cooperman in an insider-trading investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jodi Schwartz, a partner at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, has served on the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees since 2014. A 34-year veteran of Wachtell, Schwartz’s practice focuses on the tax aspects of corporate transactions, according to her firm profile. Wachtell is a famously apolitical firm, which neither made a deal with the Trump White House nor agreed to vocalize support for peer law firms targeted by the president. But Penn has drawn the administration’s ire. The White House said in March it would suspend $175 million in federal funding over Penn’s policies regarding transgender athletes.

Robert Hayward, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, was named to the Northwestern University board of trustees in 2022. He represents companies in public transactions and private equity funds in securities work, with clients that have included Boeing Co., WK Kellogg Co. and Deere & Co. The Trump administration announced it would freeze almost $800 million in federal funds to Northwestern amid a civil rights investigation.