Why One Lawyer Resigned When His Firm Caved to Trump: An Update

Hey, it's Michael. This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes this year, listening back and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran. Today, we return to our conversation with Thomas Sip. The lawyer who quit his job at a prestigious corporate law firm after his bosses gave in to legally dubious demands from president Trump. And we hear how SIP views that moment now, eight months later. It's Monday, December 29. Thomas, welcome to the daily. Thanks for having me. I'm getting the small sense that this is a nerve wracking experience for you even before it started. I'm just seeing it on your face. Yeah. It definitely is. I wanna start by asking you to explain, Thomas, how it is that you came to be a lawyer in the first place and ended up at this very prestigious firm where you worked until just a few days ago, Skadden, Arps. What's that story? So going all the way to the start, I was born in Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother. Mhmm. And my family moved to The United States when I was 10. My parents separated shortly after. And so, you know, I was learning English in middle school and also learning about what it means to be an American. It's not like becoming this sort of racial minority because I'm mixed race. And just coming to understand the social fabric that's kind of unique to The United States, especially compared to a relatively homogeneous country like Japan. Right. And, you know, growing up with my my single mom who doesn't speak, you know, fluent English, and getting all those sort of experiences, I think, started to put me on the path that I'm on now. Can you just explain that? Yeah. I mean, there were difficult days for sure. You know, whether it's not being able to make friends, being made fun of for my accent, and stuff like that. That really, I think, started to form, like, that sense of injustice that I think fuels me sometimes. Right? But at the same time, I moved to The United States, you know, in 2008 and during that election. And there's all this conversation in America about hopefulness and about, you know, this being a country where there's a place for for anyone. Right? And so I was also absorbing that as well. Mhmm. In high school, I joined a debate team to practice public speaking. And in college, I was studying political science at the University of Texas, and I had this wonderful opportunity to be a an intern at the United States Senate. Wow. This was probably basically, like, a decade after I moved to The United States. And suddenly, I'm walking through the halls of Congress with my little, you know, yellow senate intern badge and running into senators and congressmen, getting to sit in, important hearings. And it was during that time that I …