Ex-Paul Weiss Stars Balance Big Law Ties, Autonomy at Firm (1)

Prominent ex-Paul Weiss litigators who started their own boutique are striking a balance of working alongside their old firm in the courtroom while reaping the benefits of independence.

Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson and Jeannie Rhee are co-counsel with Paul Weiss on at least a half-dozen cases from their time there, with top clients including Alphabet Inc.‘s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. At the same time they’re touting their freedom to take on politically-sensitive matters and luring lawyers from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and other Big Law operations that made controversial deals with President Donald Trump.

“One of the things that we really value is our independence,” Rhee said in the new firm’s first media interview. “Our independence is going to serve our commercial clients and our pro bono clients well.”

The trio’s highly publicized exit came just two months after Paul Weiss made the deal promising $40 million in free legal services to Trump in exchange for the cancellation of a punitive executive order.

But amid the newfound attention the founders of Dunn Isaacson Rhee were able to draw on the familiarity of having known each other for decades. Rhee was part of the Paul Weiss team to recruit Dunn and Isaacson from Boies Schiller.

“We’re already working very closely together, practicing together, sharing clients freely between all of us,” Rhee said of the founders’ role at Paul Weiss. “We had a boutique within a large law firm, and we ran our teams with that kind of entrepreneurial spirit and close cohesion and collaboration.”

Dunn, Isaacson, and Rhee declined to comment on Paul Weiss’ deal with Trump. Paul Weiss declined to comment on the new boutique.

Trump’s March 14 order against Paul Weiss specifically called out work by Rhee, who was on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Dunn was part of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ short-lived presidential support team.

New Recruits

In the weeks after the trio left Paul Weiss, more than a dozen partners and associates from the firm joined them. Litigator Meryl Governski came aboard from Willkie Farr & Gallagher, another firm that made a deal with Trump. Other deal firms also saw notable mid-year partner and associate departures.

“The folks who have joined are a combination of people whom we have worked with firsthand or were recommended to us by people whom we trust and who have received rave reviews from those folks,” Dunn said.

The DC-founded boutique currently employs 27 attorneys across offices that also include New York and San Francisco. The latter cities are where the bulk of their clients and new cases are based, Isaacson said. “There are very few clients that actually exist in Washington DC,” Dunn said.

Many recruits were part of the group of attorneys who left Boies Schiller for Paul Weiss in 2020 amid criticism over its work for Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. That group includes Martha Goodman, Amy Mauser, Kyle Smith and Melissa Zappala.

The Dunn Isaacson Rhee website, which launched weeks after their departure, describes the firm as “modern,” one that operates “as a legal SWAT team—a highly trained, specialized, and agile team of experienced litigators.”

They chose Washington as their home base, where they grabbed office space abandoned by A&O Shearman. Moving into a law firm’s former digs saves the time and money of not having to make major renovations, Rhee said.

The firm’s client list, largely drawn from preexisting matters, includes big tech and finance companies, including Amazon.com Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. Governski, the former Willkie litigator, is representing Hollywood actress Blake Lively in her breach of contract suit against Justin Baldoni and his production studio.

Getting Started

Like other boutiques that are embracing the politically sensitive work that Big Law is mostly avoiding, the new firm is flexing its autonomy within the pro bono sphere.

The firm filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of former Republican US House members who are contesting changes to congressional district map making that would outlaw the use of race in drawing boundaries. The firm is also co-counsel with Protect Democracy on an amicus brief on behalf of retired military officials who joined the DC Attorney’s General lawsuit contesting Trump’s deployment of the national guard in Washington.

Dunn Isaacson Rhee faces fierce competition in the commercial litigation sphere. The market is already flooded with established trial shops such as Susman Godfrey and Hecker Fink—and new firms launching regularly.

“The firms we compete with today are still the same firms we competed with when we were at Paul Weiss,” Dunn said.

Rhee said the firm is flexible on billing arrangements, being open to litigation funding, contingency fee work, flat fee billing and the billable hour, depending on the client.

Now that the spinoff appears underway, its founders are hesitant to commit to any growth plans.

“We recognize that there are virtues to not getting too big, and we’re experiencing those virtues right now and loving what it means for the law firm,” Dunn said. “But every time anybody makes a prediction about size, it turns out to be wrong.”