It Happened AGAIN -- Another Biglaw Partner Falls For Internet Prank
Come on, stop falling for this stuff.
Jamie Gorelick (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Another day, another email scandal. WilmerHale partner Jamie Gorelick — who represents presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner for his ethics and security-clearance needs — fell for an internet prankster. Yes, the same folks behind the Twitter handle @sinon_reborn that previously tricked Abbe Lowell and goaded Ty Cobb into a flame war. This oughta be good.
As first reported by Law.com, Gorelick got drawn into a conversation with the prankster about White House counsel Don McGahn
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Starting the evening of Sept. 30, a person using the email Kushner.jared@mail.com sent Gorelick a one-sentence email: “Our mutual friend Mr. McGahn is really stirring things up.”
“What is he doing?” Gorelick replied, referring to current White House counsel Donald McGahn II.
After the phony Kushner expressed more frustration with McGahn, Gorelick wrote back: “I can speak with him as I need to call him anyway.” Gorelick then told the emailer twice that the rest of their communication would have to wait until Monday. Gorelick stopped responding after 1:30 a.m. Sunday, after she got five emails from the address.
Right around then is when Gorelick finally caught on that she wasn’t emailing with her client. And she has an excuse ready to go: she responded while on her iPad which only displays the screen name, not the full email address. Which is fair enough, I guess, but it really isn’t an ironclad excuse.
As these things go, Gorelick did pretty well. She said nothing embarrassing for her client, didn’t divulge any privileged or confidential information, and figured out she was emailing a fraud relatively quickly. Given what other Biglaw lawyers with Trump administration clients have done over email — frankly, that’s a win. But let’s not play, she could have done better.
See, she should have learned from Abbe Lowell’s experience. Remember, he not only got fooled by the same prankster, they used the exact same spoofed email address. That story made a splash in the legal community, and should have served as notice that she could also be targeted by the prankster, and appropriate precautions needed to be put in place. (Hey, Jamie — you might want to sign up for the ATL newsletter so you don’t miss any other important stories.)
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So while Gorelick’s response wasn’t terrible (and certainly a helluva lot better than, ahem, inadvertently sending revealing and privileged memos to the media), like Lowell’s experience previously, it should serve as a wake up call to Biglaw lawyers everywhere. If you have high-profile and controversial clients, you need to be on alert for all manner of cyber threats.
And please, everyone: block Kushner.jared@mail.com.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
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