Retribution against the legal community
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Donald Trump expanded his retribution campaign against law firms on Friday night as he ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to refer what she determines to be partisan lawsuits to the White House and recommend punitive actions that could harm the firms involved.
The directives were outlined in a sweeping memo in which Trump alleged that too many law firms were filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays. It came after a week of setbacks, in which a slew of judges issued temporary injunctions blocking the implementation of Trump’s agenda.
Trump’s memo directed Bondi to seek sanctions against the firms or disciplinary actions against the lawyers. But imposing sanctions is up to federal judges, and perhaps in recognition of the uncertainty that his attorney general would prevail, Trump also ordered referrals to the White House.
“When the attorney general determines that conduct by an attorney or law firm in litigation against the federal government warrants seeking sanctions or other disciplinary action, the attorney general shall … recommend to the president … additional steps that may be taken,” the memo said.
The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.
Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.
That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices..
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Not all prominent law firms are kissing the ring ...
https://bsky.app/profile/kekerllp.bsky.social/post/3lkygek5bvk2b
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One who caved.
The chairman of a prominent law firm who cut a deal with President Donald Trump last week to avert the consequences of a White House executive order told colleagues in an email Sunday that he did so because the order “could easily have destroyed our firm” and put it out of business.
The message from Brad Karp offers the most detailed public explanation yet about the decision to make significant concessions to the White House in the face of an executive order that targeted his firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton.
Karp wrote that the firm was initially prepared to challenge the executive order in court, something another law firm targeted with a Trump executive order, Perkins Coie, has done. Even as a team of attorneys prepared a complaint, he said, “it became clear that, even if we were successful in initially enjoining the executive order in litigation, it would not solve the fundamental problem, which was that clients perceived our firm as being persona non grata with the Administration.”
He also said that the support he hoped the firm would receive from other law firms never materialized.
“Disappointingly, far from support, we learned that certain other firms were seeking to exploit our vulnerabilities by aggressively soliciting our clients and recruiting our attorneys,” he wrote.
Against that backdrop, when the firm learned that the administration might be willing to cut a deal, it sought to do so and negotiated a settlement in a “matter of days.””
https://apnews.com/article/trump-law-firm-retribution-2bd698e21528511bfa54506f0483ef5c
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Paul Weiss is scum. Trump is in the process of dismantling the justice system, he's already neutralized congress. This is a slow motion coup--he meant it when he told his voters they'd never have to vote again. So this law firm faced with the enormous unconstitutionality of Trump's orders, caves. They aren't worthy.
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Extortion pays well.
President Donald Trump announced that the large law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services to the federal government during the Trump administration.
The agreement, which Trump called “essentially a settlement,” allows Skadden, Arps to avoid becoming the sixth elite law firm to be targeted by an executive order from Trump imposing various punishments.
Trump last week rescinded one of those executive orders after the targeted law firm Paul, Weiss, agreed to perform $40 million worth of pro bono — free — legal work for causes that the president supports.
Three targeted law firms, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Perkins Coie have sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive orders targeting them.https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/trump-skadden-law-firm-executive-order.html
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The end of Skadden?
"There is a general consensus among associates who are politically engaged, that a deal reached with the Trump administration will mark the beginning of the end for Skadden."
"Partners and associates are considering leaving, much of the firm is demoralized, and we will struggle to recruit the best talent for years to come," the Skadden employee said.
Rachel Cohen, a now-former firm employee, publicly resigned from Skadden last week after she said the firm had not responded properly to Trump's threats against other firms, including Paul Weiss and Perkins Coie. She circulated an open letter among associates at other top firms who called for their employers to take stronger action in response to the administration's orders targeting Big Law.
Meanwhile,
Federal judges have partially blocked President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting two major law firms, saying the firms are likely to succeed on their claims that the orders violate the first amendment.
Senior U.S. District Judges John Bates and Richard Leon, both appointees of President George W. Bush, issued their rulings in favor of law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale after back-to-back Friday hearings at the federal courthouse in Washington.
“The legal profession as a whole is watching and wondering if their courtroom activities … will cause the government to turn their eyes to them next,” Bates said.
In delivering his ruling, Bates called the executive order’s references to Jenner & Block’s pro-bono work “disturbing” and said the reasons the order gives for targeting the firm cannot survive a constitutional challenge. The executive order gives “lip service” to public safety and national security, Bates said, adding that even if he agreed with Trump’s assertions about the dangers posed by Jenner & Block, the sanctions in the order “sweep far too broadly.”https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/28/jenner-wilmerhale-executive-order-blocked-trump-028507
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Push will come to shove and we will see if those associates will all take lower-paying positions. Some may, some will not.
