NINE BIG LAW FIRMS CAVED TO TRUMP’S ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS
THAT DID NOT SIT WELL WITH MANY LARGE COMPANIES
SOME ARE MOVING THEIR LEGAL MATTERS FROM LAW FIRMS THAT CAVED TO LAW FIRMS THAT STOOD UP
Nine law firms made agreements with President Donald Trump to provide this administration with some 940 million dollars promised for what was termed pro bono services to avoid displeasing Trump. These firms are now facing significant backlash.
The firms that caved in to Trump are Paul Weiss, Kirkland and Ellis, Skadden, Willie Farr, Milbank, Latham and Watkins, Shearman, Simpson and Cadwalader.
Some companies including Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Oracle and others, are pulling their legal work from the law firms that went to the dark side and sending it instead to law firms that are part of the Rebel Alliance (remember Star Wars?). One general counsel recounted taking such action with two firms that have made deals with the White House: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. “I have pulled firms off of prospective new work. I had Skadden on one, and I had Willkie on another, and I pulled them off because of their settlement,” one energy company general counsel, who could only speak under the condition of anonymity, told Law.com. “I’m literally in a thread with other GCs, and those two firms have been pulled from other people’s panels as well.” “More than a dozen companies are actively [issuing requests for proposals] for new work, and they’ve just changed the panel. Firms that they would normally have gone to, they’ve just pulled them out.” [American Lawyer] Other in-house lawyers are quietly pulling work away from some law firms that have made deals with President Trump, citing their objections to such deals, according to interviews with legal department chiefs.
Companies that are moving their business to the “reject autocracy” firms are
questioning whether a law firm can be trusted to effectively represent clients if it is unwilling to fight this government’s unlawful demands on its own firm.
LAWYERS AT THE FIRMS THAT CAVED ARE LEAVING TOO
Some of the lawyers who worked at these compromised law firms are leaving to go to firms that were brave enough to stand up to Trump and challenge him in court. Damian Williams, the highly sought after Biden-era U.S. attorney in Manhattan, is leaving Paul Weiss just months after joining the firm, the latest fallout
from its decision to reach a deal with President Trump. [Wall Street Journal] In all, Paul Weiss is losing 7 highly regarded litigators because it caved to Trump.
Rachel Cohen, an associate at Skadden, organized an open letter in mid-March, inviting other associates to sign on.[72] The letter, addressed to large law firms, called on them to take a stand. As of March 27, 2025, over 1500 associates had signed it.[72][73] On March 21, Cohen also submitted a conditional resignation letter, urging Skadden to fight Trump’s actions; instead, they locked her out of their systems the same day.[74] Cohen called the administration’s actions an “existential” risk to the matter of law, stating that firms need to be united in condemnation, and that high profile U.S. lawyers “have an obligation to protect [the] legal system itself.”[5]
After Skadden approached the Trump administration to reach an agreement before being targeted with an executive order, two other associates, Brenna Trout Frey and Thomas Sipp, resigned.[75] Trout Frey characterized the agreement as “a craven attempt to sacrifice the rule of law for self-preservation”, and added that “if my employer cannot stand up for the rule of law, then I cannot ethically continue to work for them.”[75] She encouraged her colleagues to join her.[75] Sipp said that “we are sliding into an autocracy where those in power are above the rule of law. … Skadden is on the wrong side of history. I could no longer stay knowing that someday I would have to explain why I stayed.”[76]
Many alumni from both Skadden and Paul Weiss signed open letters condemning their choice to agree to Trump’s terms, expressing disappointment and outrage.[77] The letter from Paul Weiss alumni stated “Instead of a ringing defense of the values of democracy, we witnessed a craven surrender to, and thus complicity in, what is perhaps the gravest threat to the independence of the legal profession since at least the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy.”[77][Wikipedia]
TRUMP ACTS AS AN EXTORTIONIST
An extortionist is someone who practices extortion—the act of using violence, threats, intimidation, or pressure from one’s authority to force someone to hand over money (or something else of value) or do something they don’t want to do.
Trump extorted law firms to do his bidding. He pressured them with targeted Executive Orders demanding information about DEI and other bogus grounds for attacking them. To make the attack go away, some of the targeted law firms agreed to provide millions of dollars of as yet undefined “pro-bono” services.
Trump has behaved as a mob boss would. (What else is new?) He essentially said to these firms, “Pay me in future legal services I will demand of you to avoid the heavy hand of MY government to avoid damage to your firm. I will make your lives miserable by preventing your attorneys from having access to government documents and wrecking your dealmaking whenever I can.” Some firms caved and others sued Trump. The firms that caved are the ones suffering reputational damage.
As anyone who has experienced a schoolyard bully knows, the bully won’t stop after getting you to give them your lunch money. The bully will come back for more and more concessions from you. Trump is already leaning on the cowardly firms that caved to his pressure to provide free legal representation for chosen defendants including law enforcement officers. Is this a precursor to what this administration is planning, namely illegal orders Trump will issue to law enforcement officers to attack peaceful protesters. I wonder. One thing is certain…there will be many more demands from Trump of these compliant law firms in the future.
The only way out is to fight the bully. And the best way to fight the bully is to create collectives that band together to stand up against him.
COURTS, JUDGES, the ABA AND MORE ARE APPALLED
The American Bar Association released a statement encouraging everyone in the profession to stand up against the Trump’s “efforts to undermine the courts and the legal profession”, following that with another statement joined by over 50 smaller bar associations across the country.[67][68] The deans of nearly 80 law schools from across the country signed a joint letter condemning the administration’s actions, stating that “Punishing lawyers for their representation and advocacy violates the First Amendment and undermines the Sixth Amendment.”[69] Democratic state attorneys general sent a joint letter as well, condemning Trump’s attempts to undermine the rule of law.[70] Eighty-two law school professors of Harvard Law School’s 118 active professors signed an open letter condemning the Trump administration’s actions against law firms.[71]
[Wikipedia]
THE DC BAR VOTES OVERWHELMINGLY AGAINST THIS ADMINISTRATION
Employment lawyer Diane Seltzer has overwhelmingly defeated Paul Hastings partner Brad Bondi, the brother of the U.S. attorney general, [Pam Bondi] to lead the District of Columbia Bar, in an election that garnered record turnout and drew national attention.
According to results announced Monday, Seltzer, principal of Seltzer Law Firm, received nearly 91% of the votes, while Bondi received 9%. The total number of ballots cast totaled 38,636, representing 43% of eligible members, over five times the average number of ballots cast in a D.C. Bar election.
THE REBELS ARE WINNING SO FAR
Law firms that refused to hand over their lunch money and are, instead, challenging the extortionist-in-chief are winning in the courts across the board: Perkins Coie, Wilmer Hale, Jenner and Block. Judges are expressing their outrage with a lot of exclamation points in their opinions and one judge even put in a recipe for gumbo and compared what Trump is doing to a nauseating mixture of awful ingredients.
Judge Richard Leon striking down the retaliatory executive order [against Wilmer Hale ]with extreme prejudice, a bevy of exclamation points, and a gumbo recipe:
The Order is akin to a gumbo. Sections 2 through 5 are the meaty ingredients—e.g., the Andouille, the okra, the tomatoes, the crab, the oysters. But it is the roux—here, § 1—which holds everything together. A gumbo is served and eaten with all the ingredients together, and so too must the sections of the Order be addressed together. As explained in this Memorandum Opinion, this gumbo gives the Court heartburn.[Above the Law]
So, what’s the life lesson here? MAYBE IT’S NOT SUCH A GREAT IDEA TO GIVE IN TO A BULLY AFTER ALL
Since the nine law firms that gave in to Trump did so under duress, you have to wonder if they might be able to get out from under his thumb by asserting in a court of law that they were extorted by Trump.
If you were extorted into signing a contract, you can likely get out of it. The legal concept of “duress,” which includes extortion, can render a contract voidable, meaning it can be canceled. To successfully get out of the contract, you’ll need to demonstrate that you were forced to sign it under duress, which requires proving you were threatened and lacked a reasonable choice to refuse.
18 USC 873 is the federal law that makes extortion a crime on the federal level. There are also state level laws against extortion. Since the DOJ under Pam Bondi is complicit with Donald Trump, a law firm should have recourse under state law to pursue the remedy of dissolution of an illegal contract provided the company has standing to sue.
Law firms could request that courts hold that the deal they made (such as it is- over social media, but not in writing as far as we know) is null and void. Maybe we will see that happen if the blowback from Trump’s attack on law firms elevates the Rebel Alliance enough to make the firms that caved in rethink their decisions.
Law firms that represent wealthy clients don’t usually get their own revolutionary style folk ballads, but we are living in a world turned upside down thanks to Trump. So buckle up. The rebel law firms just got their own Les Mis style battle song.
Here it is:
