"Knife Fight" - New Cool Way of Describing Sharp Elbows, Fierce Competition, Guerrilla Warfare and More

 It was a knife fight. That's how the in crowd described what went during the process for President-elect Donald Trump to select a Secretary of the Treasury. It even involved Apollo's Marc Rowan who really didn't need the job. That guy is doing just fine. We assumed the competition went well beyond the usual sharp elbows. Eventually Scott Bessent was the nominee. 

Now, the Daily Beast uses a version of the phrase to sum up a recent move at Meta:

"Zuck’s Own Board Co-Chair Knifes Him Over MAGA Makeover"

Michael McConnell on the Oversight Board took issue with the decision to ditch fact-checking. He perceived that as caving to political pressure. 

Moving forward will we describe what is going on in prosecutorial circles and the incoming Trump Administration as a kind of knife fight? Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams has resigned and landed a job as a partner at Paul Weiss. More recently Jack Smith has resigned. Many more resignations will probably come. 

We recall with the first Trump Administration 45 US Attorneys were asked to submit their resignations. Manhattan celebrity US Attorney Prett Bharara declined. Trump's firing of him was a surprise. He seemed invulnerable. In 2022 Bharara joined law firm Wilmer Hale. 

In covering the legal sector, should I be referring to the guerrilla warfare poaching activity among Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley, Latham and Paul Weiss as knife fights? Any residue of professionalism in law firm doings has disappeared. Not only is all that a business. The dynamics seem brutal at every level and in issues beyond hiring star lateral partners. In coaching, when I ask lawyers why they stopped practicing law the typical response is: the other lawyers.

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