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Kirkland & Ellis, an elite law firm facing off against Trump, has a little mess on its hands. An associate left a "harassing" voicemail for one of Trump's lawyers. It's a weird saga, so here's a mini-thread on the resolution (1/10)
I haven't heard the one-minute voicemail. Yesterday, Judge Brann said it was "not threatening" but "you can accurately describe it as a harassing call." The reason this blew up is Trump campaign lawyer Linda Kerns requested sanctions. Background: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/16/trump-lawyer-harassing-call-opposing-attorney-436764
The associate --we don't know his name -- didn't realize Kirkland was representing Pennsylvania. In other words, he didn't know he was harassing his firm's opposing counsel. It's a huge firm, after all.
This raises questions though: He calls up random lawyers and yells at them? Often? Would he do this to male lawyer or is there a gender dynamic here? As @RMFifthCircuit put it, the guy showed bad judgment - Kirkland has conceded that.
My colleague @DaveThomas5150 has asked Kirkland if they fired the associate. Kerns said she doesn't want him IDed. "I don't want to rain down on him what has rained down on me," she said in court. She doesn't want him to get death threats from MAGA types, basically.
Judge Brann didn't sanction Kirkland. He said to Kerns: "I'm very sorry that happened to you but in my mind it's not a sanctionable event...I'm just so busy and I have to deal with the main event."
Brann, a moderate judge, doesn't care for this boycotting of Trump's law firms, BTW. "I don't know what is going on in this country," he said. "Ms. Kerns, Mr. Giuliani, and Mr. Scaringi have every right to represent the Trump campaign or really anybody they want."
Kerns spoke up again even though Brann clearly wanted to move on. "I just felt that was not a sincere apology and I just feel the smuggishness and dismissiveness with which he treated me should not be allowed," she said, referring to the Kirkland partner she's been dealing with
Brann just said "ok then" and moved on. Some folks, like @davidrlurie, say Kerns overreacted by moving for sanctions. I'm curious what people think.
To me, it's wild this guy maybe sunk his career over a dumb voicemail. He's got a family to feed, apparently (see below). Should we feel bad for him? Depends if it's a pattern or an isolated incident? Anyway, that's it -- that's the thread.
