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Brad Karp and Robert Atkins Quoted in The American Lawyer on Travel Ban
June 27, 2018
Firm chairman Brad Karp and litigation department co-chair Robert Atkins were quoted in The American Lawyer in an article highlighting legal industry-wide efforts to coordinate efforts since President Trump’s travel ban executive order in February 2017 and other policy changes threatening vulnerable individuals’ due process rights. The article, “In the Travel Ban’s Wake, a Community Came Together,” was part of the July issue of the magazine, which focuses on law firms’ pro bono work.
“One of the unexpected outcomes of this administration’s assault on individual liberties is that the legal community has joined forces and collaborated in ways that we haven’t seen in 50 years, going back to the 1960s, to ensure that the rule of law is respected,” Brad said in the article. “That’s one of the ironic triumphs of the past 18 months.”
Bob Atkins, who coordinated a team of roughly 50 Paul, Weiss legal personnel in the days after the original travel ban executive order, noted that the travel ban went straight to the core of what it means to be a lawyer. “It is easy now to look back and say—if you’re of a certain legal and political orientation—what the right thing to do was, but in the moment this was entirely uncharted territory,” says Bob. “We could see the illegality and the damage that was unfolding and we recognized as a firm that it was our obligation to participate.”