For weeks, President Trump has been issuing executive orders and memos that levy or threaten sanctions on major law firms.The moves suspend security clearances, cancel government contracts, bar employees from federal buildings — and other actions that threaten their ability to represent their clients.While Trump complains the law firms employed "very dishonest people," legal experts say Trump is retaliating against firms who have represented his political opponents or, in one case, rehired an attorney who had left his position to help prosecute a case against Trump.We hear from Rachel Cohen, who publicly resigned from her law firm in protest.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Why is Trump targeting big law firms?
For weeks now, President Donald Trump has been issuing memos and executive orders targeting big law firms. Here's how he laid it out on Fox News.
We have a lot of law firms that we're going to be going after because they were very dishonest people. They were very, very dishonest. They could go point after point after point.
Trump's moves suspended firm security clearances, prohibited government contractors from retaining the firms, and even barred their employees from federal buildings. He also issued an executive memo threatening sanctions on any law firms that pursue, quote, frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States.
Here's how Professor Timothy Zick at William & Mary Law School describes it all.
This is an effort to target and retaliate against
Each of the firms had fallen afoul of Trump in one way or another. Perkins Coie, for example, represented Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign and had a hand in the creation of the infamous Trump-Russia dossier. With another firm, Paul Weiss, the complaints included the rehiring of an attorney who had left to help prosecute a case against Trump.
In court, the Trump administration has argued that the president has the authority to take action against companies if he believes they can't be trusted with national secrets. University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein says it appears clear the president has a different goal.
I think if you look at the purpose of the executive orders, it's to intimidate professionals, to intimidate the legal profession. from engaging in professional activities that go against Donald Trump and the current administration.
Perkins Coie fought the order targeting it and won a temporary stay. A federal judge said the order likely violates the firm's First, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. One of the firm's targeted poll, Weiss, cut a deal with the White House in order to have an executive order rescinded. Other law firms have stayed silent. And that doesn't sit well with Rachel Cohen.
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Chapter 2: What actions has Trump taken against law firms?
And then Paul Weiss agreed to concessions to get the executive order rescinded. That included $40 million in pro bono work and cases aligning with the administration's agenda. Spell out for me why that is so troubling to you.
There's two pieces of the settlement that troubled me, and you've identified them. The first is this agreement to provide the $40 million in pro bono legal services. And so you have associates at a firm that has always held itself out to be kind of at the cutting edge of important pro bono work and justice work in addition to their billable obligations.
You have these associates that are now being told that their firm is going to provide millions of dollars worth of free legal support to the Trump administration to advance its aims. So that's the first thing. But the second thing that troubled me is that they committed to a – I think I have to trust that they are and be proactive here. Yeah.
Now, Paul Weiss took in over $2.6 billion in revenue last year, according to Law 360, and its chairman said in an internal email, even given that figure, I'm quoting, it was very likely that our firm would not be able to survive a protracted dispute with the administration. Hearing that, what does that say about the state of the legal profession at this moment?
I think if I hear that and I'm a client, I'm questioning why I'm paying $3,000 an hour for a law firm that doesn't think it can win a legal battle over an executive order that has functionally already been enjoined.
In your view, what do you think President Trump is trying to do in picking this fight with big law?
I think that picking a fight with big law is one prong of his multi-pronged attack on the judiciary system. He's intimidating judges. He is ignoring judges' orders and deporting people over them. And I think that his goal here is to kneecap effective pro bono representation and public interest representation challenging him.
Trump administration's telling us, I don't care how the courts decide, but also it's even easier for me if there aren't lawyers willing to go there in the first place.
When we talk about big law, we're really talking about a group of a whole lot of different firms who not only have to compete for big cases, but who would also have to defend themselves individually in what would be costly and time-consuming battles.
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