President Trump has a new lawyer on board to lead the defense of the charges brought against him in New York state court that are to be unsealed today. His new lawyer is Todd Blanche, formerly of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Blanche resigned his position at the firm to undertake the representation of President Trump. Goodbye Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, hello Blanche Law, PC.

Politico’s Erica Orden obtained Blanche’s email announcing his resignation from the firm. I take it that the email was addressed to his colleagues at the firm. Orden reports: “In his resignation email, Blanche said he was unable to take Trump as a client while remaining at Cadwalader, New York City’s oldest law firm and one of its most elite.” Orden did not want to pass up the opportunity to represent Trump. Doing so at the firm, however, was problematic. Blanche wrote his colleagues: “Obviously, doing this as a partner at Cadwalader was not an option, so I have had to make the difficult choice to leave the firm.”

Now why might that be — why is it “obvious” that Blanche couldn’t represent Trump as a Taft partner? The answer to that question is probably more interesting than Blanche’s representation of Trump per se.