Final fall, senior companions at Kaplan Hecker & Fink, a New York legislation agency identified for championing liberal causes, made a fateful choice: They have been going to sideline their hard-charging and crusading founder, Roberta A. Kaplan.
The reign of one of many nation’s most outstanding legal professionals was coming to an finish.
Ms. Kaplan was already well-known when she based her legislation agency in 2017, having received a landmark Supreme Courtroom case that paved the way in which for marriage equality for homosexual People. The agency quickly gained nationwide prominence due to her management within the #MeToo motion, and extra just lately for high-profile victories in opposition to white supremacists and former President Donald J. Trump.
However these triumphs couldn’t overcome an uncomfortable actuality, in response to folks accustomed to the legislation agency’s inner dynamics.
Within the eyes of a lot of her colleagues, together with the agency’s two different named companions, Ms. Kaplan’s poor remedy of different legal professionals — starting from micromanagement to vulgar insults and humiliating private assaults — was impairing the boutique agency she had constructed, the folks mentioned. For one factor, they mentioned, she was jeopardizing its means to recruit and retain priceless staff.
Ms. Kaplan and different companions had additionally clashed over problems with administration and technique, and a few of her colleagues have been annoyed by the difficulties of reaching consensus along with her, a number of folks mentioned.
Ms. Kaplan was advised final fall that it had change into untenable for her to stay on the agency’s administration committee — a pointy rebuke for a founding companion. She agreed to step down from the committee. The choice started a monthslong chain of occasions that culminated this week with Ms. Kaplan’s announcement that she was leaving Kaplan Hecker to start out a brand new agency.
The seemingly abrupt departure of a authorized star — a homosexual girl who had change into a heroic determine to many on the left for her willingness to tackle highly effective males like Mr. Trump and Elon Musk — shocked the authorized neighborhood. However it had been years within the making, in response to interviews with greater than 30 present and former colleagues, shoppers and others.
Ms. Kaplan has tirelessly constructed a model because the go-to lawyer for nearly each liberal trigger. This yr alone, she received an $83 million jury verdict in opposition to Mr. Trump for his having defamed the author E. Jean Carroll; efficiently defended researchers sued by Mr. Musk’s X Company; secured a settlement for folks difficult the Florida legislation that critics nicknamed “Don’t Say Homosexual”; and represented President Biden’s daughter Ashley in a felony investigation into who stole her diary.
Many former staff mentioned they have been happy with the work they’d carried out and admired Ms. Kaplan’s fearless pursuit of massive targets. However additionally they mentioned the office atmosphere she had presided over may very well be insufferable.
This went past regular gripes about robust bosses. Ms. Kaplan’s habits was at occasions such a problem {that a} prime lawyer at one other agency who was her co-counsel in a case reprimanded her over her conduct, and a progressive authorized coalition nixed her from an inventory of candidates for federal judgeships due to her repute for mistreating staff, in response to legal professionals accustomed to each episodes.
Ms. Kaplan is hardly the one high-powered legal professional with a repute for being a troublesome boss. Loads of male legal professionals have engaged in comparable habits and gotten away with it.
However Kaplan Hecker & Fink was based on the premise that it might be a “values-driven” legislation agency freed from the macho nastiness that traditionally characterised lots of the nation’s elite companies. Ms. Kaplan has mentioned she created it “on the precept that there all the time should be somebody to face as much as a bully.”
Ms. Kaplan, 57, declined interview requests. In an announcement to The New York Occasions hours earlier than she introduced her departure on Wednesday, she trumpeted her work in opposition to “a number of the world’s largest bullies” however acknowledged that “there are individuals who don’t like me, which comes with the territory, notably if you find yourself a lady.”
In response to questions on her office demeanor, the agency’s legal professionals, Christopher J. Clark and Virginia F. Tent, accused The Occasions of trafficking in “the hackneyed trope of the highly effective skilled girl as shrewish, abrasive and vindictive.” They famous that in inner evaluations, her colleagues “described Ms. Kaplan as fostering a way of assist and transparency and making her colleagues really feel heard and supported in her groups, along with being heat, considerate and empathetic.”
They added that “Ms. Kaplan’s presence and work on the agency was a major driver of the agency’s recruitment of authorized expertise.”
Sean Hecker and Julie Fink, the 2 prime companions remaining on the agency, mentioned in an announcement that “Robbie has made immeasurable contributions to the agency, we proceed to have mutual respect for her, and we look ahead to persevering with to collaborate along with her.”
Whereas Ms. Kaplan’s new and outdated companies say they plan to have a cooperative relationship, they’re already vying for shoppers and personnel — and to regulate the narrative about her exit.
A few of Ms. Kaplan’s defenders imagine that her outdated colleagues are leaking damaging details about her as a way to undercut her new agency earlier than it’s even off the bottom. Her detractors say the authorized world ought to learn about her habits.
Jostling to Be a part of
Rising up exterior Cleveland, Ms. Kaplan had mapped out her future by age 12: an Ivy League faculty, adopted by a Manhattan legislation college, culminating in a job at a prestigious legislation agency the place she would “lastly get to satisfy my dream of litigating high-profile, cutting-edge industrial instances,” as Ms. Kaplan put it in her 2015 memoir. (“Sure,” she added, “that was truly my dream.”)
Certain sufficient, Ms. Kaplan graduated from Harvard after which Columbia Legislation College. At 31, she made companion at Paul Weiss, the place she represented shoppers like JPMorgan Chase and T-Cellular.
Like many different bold younger company legal professionals, Ms. Kaplan was relentless in her pursuit of success — a lot in order that her future spouse, Rachel Lavine, a Democratic operative, as soon as offended her on an early date by evaluating her to a Bolshevik keen to spill blood for the sake of victory.
Ms. Lavine started pushing her towards political advocacy, in response to Ms. Kaplan’s memoir, “Then Comes Marriage.” In 2013, she received a landmark lawsuit that she had introduced on behalf of a lesbian who didn’t need to pay taxes on her useless companion’s property. The Supreme Courtroom used the case to strike down a key provision of the Protection of Marriage Act, paving the way in which for the nationwide proper to same-sex marriage.
Ms. Kaplan was not content material simply litigating industrial instances. When a hoped-for job in a hoped-for Hillary Clinton administration didn’t pan out, Ms. Kaplan seized the anti-Trump second and created her personal legislation agency: Kaplan & Firm.
Ms. Kaplan’s timing was impeccable. She pitched her agency as a progressive bastion that will mix trailblazing public curiosity observe with civil and felony litigation. The objective was to win large rewards for worthy causes whereas additionally making its legal professionals wealthy. The cherry on prime: The agency was run by a authorized big in a discipline largely bereft of feminine leaders, a lot much less homosexual ladies.
Liberal legal professionals jostled to hitch.
The agency’s start-up nature made it much less bureaucratic, and staff from that point mentioned Ms. Kaplan may very well be beneficiant and enjoyable to work for. If she preferred you, she would possibly share juicy gossip from her social circle, invite you to Shabbat dinner or allow you to land a judicial clerkship.
The shoppers — and the billable hours — flowed in. There have been headline-grabbing public curiosity instances, like an bold federal lawsuit in opposition to the white supremacists and others behind the notorious “Unite the Proper” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. And there have been marquee company shoppers like Uber, Airbnb and Pfizer.
Earlier than lengthy Ms. Kaplan added Mr. Hecker, a white-collar felony protection lawyer, to the identify of the agency, alongside along with her co-founding companion, Ms. Fink.
Quickly they arrange store excessive within the Empire State Constructing. Ms. Kaplan adorned her workplace with images of her posing with former President Barack Obama and the Clintons and named a convention room after Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Meatball Incident
From the beginning, Ms. Kaplan’s habits alienated a few of her new hires.
“Robbie was a screamer, she yelled quite a bit, and that was not an expertise I had earlier than,” mentioned Christopher Greene, who had joined from the powerhouse legislation agency Sullivan & Cromwell. “Now it was a part of my each day, and the workplace wasn’t large.”
Many former staff recalled listening to Ms. Kaplan berating colleagues for his or her supposed incompetence and lack of intelligence. (Most would communicate solely on the situation that The Occasions not establish them, citing concern {of professional} repercussions.)
Within the midst of the #MeToo motion, Ms. Kaplan advised colleagues that she was too good to ever have been sexually assaulted, in response to Seguin Strohmeier, one other early rent, and two different former associates who additionally heard the remarks.
Ms. Kaplan’s legal professionals mentioned in a letter to The Occasions that she had by no means “urged that anybody might be ‘too good’ to be sexually assaulted as a result of that’s clearly not true.”
5 staff on the agency recalled inappropriate feedback Ms. Kaplan made about colleagues’ seems. As soon as, she advised a feminine affiliate that the affiliate was extra suited to “again of home” work due to her look. One other time, Ms. Kaplan mentioned the identical affiliate was an excessive amount of of a “dyke” to clerk for the Supreme Courtroom, Ms. Strohmeier recalled. Different occasions she used gender-specific insults.
Ms. Kaplan’s legal professionals denied that she criticized staff’ appearances and mentioned she “is hardly the one skilled trial lawyer susceptible to salty language at occasions.”
Many former staff recalled Ms. Kaplan’s publicly berating case managers, who’re younger, low-ranking staff. As soon as she verbally attacked a case supervisor who disobeyed her command to not embody meatballs in a pizza order. Ms. Kaplan’s fury was so outstanding {that a} lawyer took notes, which The Occasions reviewed. The notes described the meatball incident as one of some examples during which Ms. Kaplan “publicly derided” the case supervisor “each to her face and behind her again.”
Mr. Clark and Ms. Tent, the legal professionals for Ms. Kaplan, mentioned this was inaccurate. “To the extent Ms. Kaplan gave instruction about what meals to order, it was usually to order an excessive amount of fairly than too little meals,” they wrote.
To the frustration of some colleagues, Ms. Kaplan at occasions insisted that she evaluation prematurely sure emails that companions deliberate to ship externally. Occasionally, she turned irate when this edict was violated.
An Open Secret
By the 2020 election, Ms. Kaplan’s conduct had change into one thing of an open secret within the authorized neighborhood. That fall, a coalition of progressive teams ready an inventory of supreme candidates for judicial nominations to ship to the incoming Biden administration. Ms. Kaplan was on an early model of the listing, in response to a replica reviewed by The Occasions.
However earlier than it was despatched, Ms. Kaplan’s identify was deleted on the behest of Molly Coleman, a lawyer and a founding father of the Individuals’s Parity Undertaking, whose objectives included eliminating harassment and discrimination in legislation. Ms. Coleman mentioned in an interview that she had heard from legal professionals at Kaplan Hecker & Fink who needed to go away due to office situations. She advised different folks within the coalition that if Ms. Kaplan was nominated for a judgeship, her group would publicly oppose her. She mentioned nobody had objected to eradicating Ms. Kaplan from the listing.
Ms. Kaplan’s legal professionals mentioned she couldn’t remark as she was not conscious of being on any such listing and didn’t know if she had been taken off one.
Close to the top of 2021, Ms. Kaplan’s lawsuit in opposition to the white supremacists in Charlottesville went to trial. It was a high-stress atmosphere; Ms. Kaplan was focused with antisemitic threats. She advised some attorneys on the multi-firm workforce that they didn’t deserve their legislation levels. She threatened to damage one’s profession.
Because the trial was ending, Ms. Kaplan’s co-counsel from Paul Weiss, the veteran trial lawyer Karen Dunn, referred to as out Ms. Kaplan’s habits throughout a heated assembly, saying she had by no means seen one other lawyer deal with folks so poorly, in response to legal professionals who witnessed the argument.
Ms. Dunn declined to remark. Ms. Kaplan’s legal professionals denied that the incident had taken place and disputed the accounts of her habits in the course of the trial.
Ms. Kaplan and her workforce received the Charlottesville case: The jury discovered the “Unite the Proper” rally organizers answerable for greater than $25 million in damages. The legal professionals have been happy with the win. However at the least 5 of them later left Kaplan Hecker & Fink.
A Signature Challenge
When the #MeToo motion erupted in October 2017, only some months after the agency was based, Ms Kaplan shortly made it a signature concern. She lobbied for authorized adjustments that will make it simpler for survivors to sue their assailants and finally turned the chairwoman of Time’s Up, the celebrity-studded nonprofit group that fought sexual harassment within the office, and co-founded its authorized protection fund.
However Ms. Kaplan wasn’t representing solely victims. She defended Goldman Sachs and Riot Video games in lawsuits associated to intercourse discrimination. She additionally helped firms like Uber, the mother or father firm of Pornhub and Vice Media enhance their practices within the wake of sexual misconduct scandals. A former senior worker mentioned the agency’s pitch to such shoppers was that Ms. Kaplan’s credibility on #MeToo would assist them deal with their crises, which made some on the agency uncomfortable.
“It’s absolutely according to the agency’s work on this house to assist investigative and reform tasks,” Ms. Kaplan’s attorneys mentioned.
There was just one event when the strain between Ms. Kaplan’s public advocacy and personal authorized observe threatened to change into a major problem.
In 2020, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York confronted allegations of sexual harassment, he turned to Ms. Kaplan for recommendation on how you can confront the disaster. Ms. Kaplan’s function turned public months later when the New York legal professional basic launched a report detailing the investigation of Mr. Cuomo’s actions.
The backlash was intense. Greater than 150 victims and advocates signed an open letter to the Time’s Up board accusing it of prioritizing “its proximity to energy over mission.” Ms. Kaplan quickly resigned as chairwoman.
In public, she appeared to climate the fallout. Contained in the agency, although, the fracas over Ms. Kaplan’s entanglement with Mr. Cuomo continued to rankle, inflicting growing doubts amongst some legal professionals about her judgment.
At the least one shopper in a #MeToo case reached out to the agency, writing in an electronic mail reviewed by The Occasions: “Most distressing is the belief that Kaplan Hecker could also be utilizing professional bono instances like mine, and specifically instances representing sexual violence victims, as a way to launder the agency’s repute and buy credibility with which they’ll extra successfully market themselves as paid representatives for perpetrators and enablers.”
Ms. Kaplan’s legal professionals mentioned the shopper who had despatched the e-mail saved Ms. Kaplan as a lawyer. They added that the agency did an “extraordinary” quantity of professional bono work.
Agreeing to Step Down
It was shortly earlier than Thanksgiving final yr when Mr. Hecker and Ms. Fink, in addition to different companions on the agency, knowledgeable Ms. Kaplan that it was not viable for her to stay on the administration committee that oversaw and made essential selections concerning the agency.
The companions remained nervous about her remedy of colleagues, and so they seen her as enjoying an obstructionist function that was interfering with key selections on the agency, in response to folks accustomed to the inner dynamics.
Mr. Hecker and Ms. Fink acknowledged that pushing Ms. Kaplan off the committee was basically sidelining her and would possibly lead her to give up the agency, in response to an individual accustomed to the decision-making.
Ms. Kaplan agreed to step down from the committee. She framed the choice as voluntary and famous that it gave her extra time to organize for the fast-approaching defamation trial that will pit her shopper Ms. Carroll in opposition to Mr. Trump.
By the point the trial received underway in Decrease Manhattan in January, Ms. Kaplan had already begun mulling her departure. The agency had grown shortly, and he or she longed for a “return to my roots,” as she later put it, with a smaller and extra centered legislation agency.
It wasn’t till months later, in April, that lots of the companions knew that she could be leaving the agency that she created seven years earlier.
On Monday, her identify might be faraway from the legislation agency, which can now be referred to as Hecker Fink.
Matthew Goldstein, Benjamin Mullin and David Enrich contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes and Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
