Kathleen Rubenstein, the Skadden Foundation’s executive director, resigned from the public interest law organization two months after the firm behind it struck a deal with President Donald Trump.

“My hope is that Skadden charts a path that respects the rule of law and honors the core values of the Skadden Foundation,” Rubenstein said Wednesday in a post on LinkedIn.

The foundation funds a prestigious fellowship program aimed at helping new attorneys launch careers in public interest law. Rubenstein had been in the position since 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Wall Street’s Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom on March 28 struck a deal with Trump as the president targeted firms with punitive executive orders over ties to lawyers he perceives as enemies. The deal guaranteed $100 million in free legal services on causes of interest to the firm and the White House.

Skadden, which has long touted the fellowships as part of the firm’s culture, also made commitments on behalf of the Skadden Foundation. The firm pledged to include politically conservative participants in the fellowship program and dedicate at least five spots to projects like “ensuring fairness” in the justice system and fighting antisemitism.

The current “moment in time” requires more support of public interest lawyers, Rubenstein said, and demands the same “urgency and courage” as shown by the fellows it supports.

Skadden hasn’t “risen to that challenge,” she said. “When they do, they’ll preserve and build on the Skadden Foundation’s unparalleled legacy.”

The foundation on Wednesday announced Susan Plum, who has worked for the foundation for more than three decades and previously served as director of the organization, as its interim executive director.

“We recognize that maintaining a broad, nonpartisan approach in an increasingly polarized climate is more difficult than ever and some believe it runs counter to the Foundation’s purpose and values,” Plum said in a LinkedIn post. “We fundamentally disagree. In fact, the opposite is true. This moment is precisely when the Foundation must adhere to its core foundational principle of transcending division to enable the Fellows’ work where it is needed most.”

The Skadden Foundation in a statement said it was “thrilled” to have Plum return to a leadership role in the organization, noting she collaborated with founder Joe Flom at its inception.

“We are grateful for Kathleen’s contributions as Executive Director over the past six years and wish her the best in her future endeavors,” the statement said.

Rubenstein did not immediately respond to a message sent through LinkedIn.

The Skadden Foundation, founded in 1988, awards two-year grants for 25 to 30 recent law school graduates each year. Fellows partner with nonprofit organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and work on issues including LGBT+, reproductive, and immigrant rights.

Rubenstein earned a Skadden fellowship in 2010 and later worked in New York City government roles before joining the foundation.

The 2025 fellowships offered a base salary of $65,000 a year. Skadden scrubbed mentions of past fellows and their pro bono projects from its website following Trump’s announcement of the deal with the firm. Past fellows include New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (D) and Delaware Judge Noel Primos.

Past Skadden fellows criticized the Trump deal. One alumnus told Bloomberg Law the law firm had “given up on the rule of law in a fair and free society.”

Rubenstein’s resignation adds to the public fallout for Skadden. Like the eight other firms that struck deals with Trump, the firm has suffered from professional backlash.

Those firms, which together pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services for the administration, have seen associates leave while criticizing the deals. A Skadden lawyer who departed in March, Rachel Cohen, said the firm was headed down a “craven path” by negotiating with Trump.

Few high-profile partners have publicly criticized their firms’ deals, but signs of broader unease are emerging. A group of prominent litigators last week departed Paul Weiss, the first firm to strike a deal with Trump.

Some clients have quietly moved work away from those firms and expressed resignations about working with firms that weren’t willing to defend themselves against the administration, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

Four law firms opted to fight Trump’s executive orders targeting them. Three of the firms—Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale—won permanent injunctions barring enforcement of the orders. A fourth firm, Susman Godfrey, won a temporary reprieve and has asked a judge to permanently bar the order.

— Tatyana Monnay contributed reporting for this article.

Paul Weiss, the elite law firm that was the first to strike a deal with the Trump administration to deflect a punishing executive order, is losing one of its most prominent new hires — the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Damian Williams, who joined Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in January, shortly after stepping down as one of the nation’s top federal prosecutors, is taking a job with Jenner & Block. The move, the latest in a string of high-profile departures, was announced on Friday by Jenner & Block, where Mr. Williams will serve as a co-head of the law firm’s litigation and white-collar practices.

Unlike Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block chose to challenge an executive order aimed at punishing the firm for employing an attorney who had investigated Mr. Trump. Last month. a federal judge struck down that order, calling it “doubly violative of the Constitution.”

As U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Mr. Williams, 44, and his team secured a number of high-profile convictions, including in the fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder. His office also was successful in convicting former Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey on public corruption charges.

Paul, Weiss — the first law firm to strike a deal with President Trump to avoid a punitive executive order — is losing a prominent attorney to a firm that, when targeted by the White House, fought back in court.

Damian Williams, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is set to leave Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison after half a year there for a role at Jenner & Block. His departure is the latest in a series of high-profile resignations from the firm in the aftermath of its agreement with the Trump administration.

In a Friday statement, Williams praised Jenner & Block for “fearlessly” advocating for its clients and how it “lives its values.”

“I’m excited to join a team with an extraordinary depth of legal talent that doesn’t shy away from hard fights — and delivers results that matter,” he said.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has targeted six big law firms with executive orders aimed at undercutting their business as retribution for their ties to his political adversaries.

While four of the firms filed legal action challenging the directives, Trump revoked his executive order against Paul, Weiss after it agreed to provide $40 million in free legal services to support administration initiatives and other perks.

The deal set off an avalanche of agreements between the Trump administration and the nation’s top law firms. Now, eight other firms have entered agreements with Trump to provide tens of millions of dollars in pro bono work, despite there being no executive orders issued against them.

Jenner & Block, meanwhile, sued the administration. A federal judge last month deemed the order against the firm unlawful and blocked it in full.

“This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers,” U.S. District Judge John Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in a 52-page opinion. “It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full.”

Last month, four top lawyers at Paul, Weiss also departed from their roles as partners at the law firm to form their own practice.

Some of the nation’s top law firms that folded to Donald Trump’s pressure campaign are now facing the fallout.

At least 11 major companies are shifting legal work away from firms that struck deals with the Trump administration, instead turning toward those that stood their ground, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

General counsels at various companies told the newspaper they doubted whether firms that surrendered to Trump could still be relied upon to represent them—in court or at the negotiating table—if they couldn’t stand up for themselves.

Oracle, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft and McDonald’s are reportedly among the big name businesses to distance themselves from those legal firms, either by scaling back work, voicing concerns, or parting ways.

A mobile billboard slams law firms who made a deal with Trump, calling on Big Law to “stop bending the knee.” Brian Stukes/Getty Images for Demand Justice

In one case, the Journal reported, a firm that cut a deal with the Trump administration reportedly stopped representing McDonald’s in a high-profile lawsuit months before trial. In another, Microsoft put concerns in writing to one of its go-to firms.

A top executive at one company told the Journal her employer plans to transition work away from the law firm Paul, Weiss, which lost four of its partners after entering into a deal with the White House.

A general counsel at a separate company told the newspaper she felt “physically ill” when Paul, Weiss struck the agreement.

In February, Trump began waging war on law firms that had crossed him in past cases or political fights. Through executive orders, his administration threatened firms with access restrictions, canceled government contracts, and revoked security clearances.

He rescinded executive orders against firms in exchange for pledges of pro bono work aligned with his government’s priorities, often worth tens of millions of dollars.

The firms that made deals with the administration include Kirkland & Ellis; Skadden, Simpson Thacher, A&O Shearman, and Latham & Watkins. Collectively, the pro bono work promised by the firms that yielded adds up to roughly $1 billion.

Earlier this year, protesters gathered outside New York-based law firms, including Paul Weiss, to oppose their capitulation to the Trump administration. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

Another firm that made a deal was Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which employs Doug Emhoff, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband. Emhoff joined the firm in January, and according to The New York Times, unsuccessfully advised his leadership to fight back.