The Masks Are Off: Allen & Overy Sells Its Soul (Again)
- Kris Vansanten
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 22
It’s official: Allen & Overy Shearman (A&O) has inked a deal with Donald Trump. A&O is one of five so-called “elite” law firms that have agreed to defend Trump 𝒑𝒓𝒐 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒐 against a tsunami of legal challenges, both civil and criminal. Their mandate is to shield him from accountability, no matter the damage done by him to the justice system and to the very fabric of democracy.
Unlike what A&O’s management claims, this isn’t business as usual. This is a deliberate, ethical abdication. Inside the firm, over 500 lawyers and associates have already signed a petition opposing the deal, as they cannot reconcile it with their own values.
But for Allen & Overy, the moral compass seems to have been broken for a long time. Questionable practices are far from new.
Take the Nyrstar-scandal, a case study in corporate parasitism in which A&O is both advisory and litigation counsel to Trafigura. The minority shareholders of Nyrstar contend that, in what amounts to a blueprint for legalized looting, Trafigura bled Nyrstar dry from within, hollowing it out while putting up a façade of legal propriety. The endgame? A restructuring deal in the UK, out of which Trafigura emerged as the new owner of all of Nyrstar's assets, leaving Nyrstar as an empty shell.
The most grotesque chapter? A&O engineered a $20 million loan from Trafigura to Nyrstar that came with explicit conditions: Nyrstar cannot initiate any legal action against Trafigura, its partners, directors or its lawyers. Let that sink in. The very people who engineered the controversial restructuring built in the perfect immunity for themselves. The legal framework appears engineered to pre-empt scrutiny.
Or take A&O’s involvement in assisting a Kremlin-linked oligarch—whose companies have supplied materials to the Russian military in occupied Ukrainian territories—it also exposes a longstanding ethical void at its core (https://lnkd.in/eF2Upcpg).
In both cases, one can question whether professional ethics were subordinated to corporate self-preservation.
If A&O is willing to flout judicial rulings, echoing Trump’s contempt for the rule of law, and to facilitate Russia’s war effort in Ukraine despite EU sanctions, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬: 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬?
So, when Allen & Overy management tries to justify signing on with Trump, remember this: their allegiance isn’t to justice. It’s to those who are in power, even if that means destroying trust in institutions, democracy, or the rule of law.
The masks are off. And the face beneath is ugly.
Automated translation (Chat GPT)
