Michael Barbaro

They may feel the way you feel and have two kids they have to put through college.

They might not feel the way you feel.

I'm thinking about reporting my colleagues did inside the upper echelons of Paul Weiss when that law firm did a deal with Trump.

And it became clear that the majority of the people who run the firm, lots of them,

felt that the best thing to do was to make a deal to protect the thousands of people who work at these firms.

And that at the end of the day, what they're giving up

is small compared to that survival.

And the bosses at all these firms that end up capitulating to Trump say some version of, we are the same law firm after we did these deals as we were before.

In fact, in a company-wide email, your former boss says just that.

Quote, this agreement does not change who we are.

What do you make of that?

It does change who the firm is.

You very clearly have a lot of faith in the U.S., but at this point, how confident are you, given everything you've just been through, that the version of the United States that seems to be at the center of everything you've done here is now the version of the United States?

And you just publicly picked a little bit of a fight with the president.

I wonder if this experience made you question going into law.

Well, Thomas, thank you for coming in here and for telling us this story.

We really appreciate it.

Last time we spoke, it was just a few days after you quit your job at Skadden.

Right.

Suddenly, you're not employed.