Paul Weiss Chairman Brad Karp said in a letter to its lawyers and staff on Sunday that the Trump administration would not be "dictating" what free legal work the powerful Wall Street law firm would provide under a deal it struck with the White House last week.

Paul Weiss, a law firm targeted by President Trump, reached a deal to settle a conflict. Many in the legal field are condemning the agreement.

The chairman of a prominent law firm who cut a deal with President Trump to avert the consequences of an executive order told colleagues in an email that he did so because the order “could easily have destroyed our firm.