Women's rights, immigration and the economy form the nucleus of a national decision that could send ripples across states for years to come, following what I'm sure will be a feverish, sleepless night.
The decision will undoubtedly have consequences for the legal world, both direct and indirect. Ostensibly law firms are apolitical and lawyers loathe to revealing where on the political spectrum they fall. But when politics is as polarizing as it has been since the Trump era, 'no politics in the office' etiquette has been swiftly jettisoned.
Brad Karp, chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, for instance, is one of Big Law's most prominent Kamala Harris supporters. Since summer, he has been working with business leaders to raise money for the Harris campaign.
And, even on fee work, firms are nailing their political colours to the mast.
For instance, as Abigail Adcox reports, the Republican National Committee has enlisted the likes of Trump-friendly Jones Day, while the Democratic National Committee has retained Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling, with election litigation already being prepared on various fronts.
In America, my colleagues tell me, anxiety levels are high. For Americans, the consequences could be stark. But, one wonders, if Trump in particular is successful, what will this mean for the rest of the world?
It was, after all, the ex-President who in 2018 instituted the U.S.-China trade war, the aftermath of which is still the long shadow on East-West politics.
Indeed, for some Big Law players, the tensions between China and the U.S. are proving too much to bear, provoking a U.S. law firm exodus from China...
