The U.S. legal system isn’t broken—it’s functioning exactly as designed: to entangle minorities and people of color in a cycle that rarely ends. While some celebrate symbolic refusals—like denying Trump legal victories—how many other cases have been greenlit that deepen injustice? Let’s not pretend the system is neutral. And let’s stop pretending all lawyers are advocates for justice. Many are gatekeepers of a machine built to preserve inequality.
The farce isn’t just that lawyers walked away from millions. It’s that most have helped reinforce and build the system that made such a walkout possible…and inevitable.
This story isn’t about a few disillusioned attorneys. It’s about the architecture of American power: a legal-industrial complex that monetizes proximity, rewards silence, and ritualizes complicity. These lawyers didn’t just leave money on the table…they left a system they helped design, one that treats law as a tool of access, not accountability.
From a behavioral standpoint, the U.S. legal system isn’t built to deliver justice. It’s built to simulate it, through procedure, delay, and spectacle.
• Lawyers become gatekeepers of legitimacy.
• Clients become pawns in reputational chess.
• Outcomes hinge on narrative control, not truth.
And when the stakes get too high, (when the client is a president, a billionaire, or a regime) the system doesn’t collapse. It tightens.
It protects itself.
It rewards those who play along.
And it punishes those who don’t with exile, not exposure.
This is why the legal profession, for all its rhetoric about ethics and duty, often functions as a behavioral firewall—-shielding power from consequence.
The lawyers who walked away didn’t just reject Trump. They rejected the farce they helped sustain.
And the wider truth?
Law in America is not a moral compass. It’s a performance protocol.
One designed to absorb dissent, delay reckoning, and preserve the illusion of order.
Reality…
— Johan
Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory
Your second to last sentence says it all for me. The court system plays its role in everything you say as well, with legitimate (and not all that complex) cases held hostage & tying people and money up needlessly for YEARS.
Such an important report! We need these moments of having a peek inside, seeing that in the mix, there are heroes with integrity and courage still true to the rule of law. Thank you!
Thank you for your integrity and humanity! I still cannot believe so many firms folded! But thank you for coming to your nation’s defense! We appreciate it and want to know how we can help you!??!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thank you for celebrating these men. Am I correct that Kamala Harris‘s husband is still working for one of these corrupt law firms with no children in private school to support —not that I think that’s an excuse.
Matthew Wallin ably expressed and exposed big law and its craven obeisance to Trump. Many of your commenters have also correctly called out the folly of litigation as a search for justice. But, while there’s plenty to see in the latest failing of the legal profession to measure up, it’s not new. The story of Atticus Finch is a literary masterpiece because he was definitely fictional, and the exception and not the rule. I hope we will celebrate those, now, who are going against the grain, and recognize their accomplishments. Discover and discuss why some crimes, and the people who commit them are prosecuted and others are not (as your excellent Epstein reporting shows.) Above the fray is not the right place to be during these times.
It’s so refreshing to see those pushing back against this felonious regime put their integrity above their riches! I applaud and thank them for their commitments to law and order, not a tyrant!
I am not surprised. I binged the Innocence Project’s podcast during Covid lockdown. You only have to listen to one or two Wrongful Conviction episodes to realize how messed up the legal system is. It also makes you see with clarity those with integrity and those without it.
That was interesting. Learning the inner workings is always good and lately scary. The club mentality in the system of what is referenced with the word, justice. Have always wondered when I was young why law wasn’t a requirement in public education 5-12th grade. Then realize why later in life. A wonderful tool for destroying the lower class. Backed up by well armed uneducated people for a paycheck. Isn’t that special. Cheers 🥂
I have always been so fascinated when I hear the folks in Congress get credit or something for the very rare occasion that they actually cast a tough vote. OMG! They might get voted out and have to make a ton as a lobbyist or College President.
Every day, people across America risk their careers and the money that comes with it by doing things they feel they have to do for some ethical reason. Hell, look no further than Tara P and her many colleagues who felt they had to leave their cushy jobs for ethical reasons.
Are we to actually feel sympathy for these clowns in Congress or on the Supreme Court who can’t do the right thing the next time we have a mass shooting by voting in sensible gun control, for instance? Please!
These lawyers are everyday heroes. The folks in Congress are self absorbed creeps.
It long been known by even casual observers that big law firms often lean left or right. Didn't surprise me that that made deals instead of going to court.
I am also a lawyer who left millions on the table to fight Donald Trump.
You can't disprove it.
Shout out to Matthew Wollin, holding it down for non-scumbag lawyers everywhere…
The U.S. legal system isn’t broken—it’s functioning exactly as designed: to entangle minorities and people of color in a cycle that rarely ends. While some celebrate symbolic refusals—like denying Trump legal victories—how many other cases have been greenlit that deepen injustice? Let’s not pretend the system is neutral. And let’s stop pretending all lawyers are advocates for justice. Many are gatekeepers of a machine built to preserve inequality.
Thank you for your integrity and courage ❤️
I commend you for choosing integrity over capitulation.
The farce isn’t just that lawyers walked away from millions. It’s that most have helped reinforce and build the system that made such a walkout possible…and inevitable.
This story isn’t about a few disillusioned attorneys. It’s about the architecture of American power: a legal-industrial complex that monetizes proximity, rewards silence, and ritualizes complicity. These lawyers didn’t just leave money on the table…they left a system they helped design, one that treats law as a tool of access, not accountability.
From a behavioral standpoint, the U.S. legal system isn’t built to deliver justice. It’s built to simulate it, through procedure, delay, and spectacle.
• Lawyers become gatekeepers of legitimacy.
• Clients become pawns in reputational chess.
• Outcomes hinge on narrative control, not truth.
And when the stakes get too high, (when the client is a president, a billionaire, or a regime) the system doesn’t collapse. It tightens.
It protects itself.
It rewards those who play along.
And it punishes those who don’t with exile, not exposure.
This is why the legal profession, for all its rhetoric about ethics and duty, often functions as a behavioral firewall—-shielding power from consequence.
The lawyers who walked away didn’t just reject Trump. They rejected the farce they helped sustain.
And the wider truth?
Law in America is not a moral compass. It’s a performance protocol.
One designed to absorb dissent, delay reckoning, and preserve the illusion of order.
Reality…
— Johan
Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory
Former Foreign Service Officer
Thanks for this. learned so much from this comment
Thank you and I love engaging! Great topic to discuss and so much to think about from your piece.
Appreciate it.
Wow! Incredible comment and thank you.
You mopped the floor; just amazing! I’ve been wanting something to speak this truth for a long time.
Your second to last sentence says it all for me. The court system plays its role in everything you say as well, with legitimate (and not all that complex) cases held hostage & tying people and money up needlessly for YEARS.
Thanks Tara & Matthew: Yes when you capitulate once you will capitulate twice and the extortionist will keep coming for more.
Such an important report! We need these moments of having a peek inside, seeing that in the mix, there are heroes with integrity and courage still true to the rule of law. Thank you!
Thank you for your integrity and humanity! I still cannot believe so many firms folded! But thank you for coming to your nation’s defense! We appreciate it and want to know how we can help you!??!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
So glad to hear 👂🏾 that even lawyers are join forces against yours truly (wannabe King 👑, dictator) to save democracy.👍🏿🙏🏿👏🏿
Thank you for celebrating these men. Am I correct that Kamala Harris‘s husband is still working for one of these corrupt law firms with no children in private school to support —not that I think that’s an excuse.
Yes! It's unbelievable
Matthew Wallin ably expressed and exposed big law and its craven obeisance to Trump. Many of your commenters have also correctly called out the folly of litigation as a search for justice. But, while there’s plenty to see in the latest failing of the legal profession to measure up, it’s not new. The story of Atticus Finch is a literary masterpiece because he was definitely fictional, and the exception and not the rule. I hope we will celebrate those, now, who are going against the grain, and recognize their accomplishments. Discover and discuss why some crimes, and the people who commit them are prosecuted and others are not (as your excellent Epstein reporting shows.) Above the fray is not the right place to be during these times.
It’s so refreshing to see those pushing back against this felonious regime put their integrity above their riches! I applaud and thank them for their commitments to law and order, not a tyrant!
Cause they realize that there is no end to this “mafia minded” thug in the WH! He will vanquish them if they acquiesce! Count on it!
I am not surprised. I binged the Innocence Project’s podcast during Covid lockdown. You only have to listen to one or two Wrongful Conviction episodes to realize how messed up the legal system is. It also makes you see with clarity those with integrity and those without it.
That was interesting. Learning the inner workings is always good and lately scary. The club mentality in the system of what is referenced with the word, justice. Have always wondered when I was young why law wasn’t a requirement in public education 5-12th grade. Then realize why later in life. A wonderful tool for destroying the lower class. Backed up by well armed uneducated people for a paycheck. Isn’t that special. Cheers 🥂
Heroes!
I have always been so fascinated when I hear the folks in Congress get credit or something for the very rare occasion that they actually cast a tough vote. OMG! They might get voted out and have to make a ton as a lobbyist or College President.
Every day, people across America risk their careers and the money that comes with it by doing things they feel they have to do for some ethical reason. Hell, look no further than Tara P and her many colleagues who felt they had to leave their cushy jobs for ethical reasons.
Are we to actually feel sympathy for these clowns in Congress or on the Supreme Court who can’t do the right thing the next time we have a mass shooting by voting in sensible gun control, for instance? Please!
These lawyers are everyday heroes. The folks in Congress are self absorbed creeps.
It long been known by even casual observers that big law firms often lean left or right. Didn't surprise me that that made deals instead of going to court.