Law firms like Paul Weiss that bent to the Trump administration’s demands are finding that big-name clients prefer to take their business elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
McDonald’s and Oracle are among the growing list of clients choosing to part ways with the appeasing firms. General counsels have concerns about whether these law firms could be trusted to fight it out for them in the courtroom and in negotiations, the Journal reported, when they so easily bent to Trump’s demands.
Tag Archives: Perkins Coie
MSNBC: Judge warns of Trump’s ‘pernicious’ law firm targeting in ruling against it
It’s the latest ruling striking down one of Trump’s revenge orders against law firms the president doesn’t like.
Fully blocking Trump’s order against the firm Jenner & Block, the George W. Bush appointee noted that the order in this case is one of several targeting firms that “did not bow to the current presidential administration’s political orthodoxy.” The judge said the order went after the firm “because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed.”
Sitting in Washington, D.C., Bates called the order “doubly violative of the Constitution.”
“Most obviously,” he wrote, quoting a recent Supreme Court precedent, “retaliating against firms for the views embodied in their legal work — and thereby seeking to muzzle them going forward — violates the First Amendment’s central command that government may not ‘use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.’”
The judge also highlighted the “more subtle but perhaps more pernicious” issue of “the message the order sends to the lawyers whose unalloyed advocacy protects against governmental viewpoint becoming government-imposed orthodoxy.”
He said the order “seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers. It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full.”
CBS News: 4 partners leave Paul Weiss after firm cut deal with Trump
Four partners at Paul Weiss — including the high-profile Democratic attorney Karen Dunn — are departing the law firm, a spokesperson told CBS News, after Paul Weiss drew attention for striking a deal with President Trump to avoid targeting by the federal government.
The rest of the law firm threw $40M of pro bono legal work at the corrupt Trump regime so they could continue doing business as usual.
Kudos and applause for the 4 partner attorneys who had the courage to leave.
Meanwhile another law firm (Jenner & Block) had the integrity to fight back in court and win without lining King Donald’s pockets.
MSNBC: Trump administration suspended clearances of lawyers from targeted firm
President Donald Trump’s administration is still working to exact his vengeance against at least one of the law firms he has targeted, even as several firms are fighting back in court — largely successfully so far.
The latest evidence of the administration’s efforts comes from a court filing Tuesday to the judge handling the case of WilmerHale, one of the firms that sued instead of settling or preemptively cutting a deal with Trump. The firm told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon that two WilmerHale lawyers received letters from a government agency telling them their security clearances have been suspended.
“This development underscores that the Executive Branch stands ready and willing to implement the Executive Order absent judicial intervention,” wrote attorney Paul Clement, who’s representing the firm. He didn’t specify which agency sent the letters but said he would provide them under seal to the court if the judge asked to see them.
Associated Press: Judge blocks Trump executive order targeting elite law firm, a blow to his retribution campaign
A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked a White House executive order targeting an elite law firm, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump’s campaign of retribution against the legal profession.
U.S. District Beryl Howell said the executive order against the firm of Perkins Coie amounted to “unconstitutional retaliation” as she ordered that it be nullified and that the Trump administration halt any enforcement of it.
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The ruling was most definitive rejection to date of Trump’s spate of similarly worded executive orders against some of the country’s most elite law firms, part of a broader effort by the president to reshape American civil society by targeting perceived adversaries in hopes of extracting concessions from them and bending them to his will.
Daily Digest: Trump is spreading chaos through the law sector
President Trump’s targeted executive order against private law firms, several since his inauguration, are reshaping the law world by pushing big companies to cut deals or recoil.
President Trump targeted various law firms, stripping them of security clearances, federal contracts, and access to government buildings. Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, WilmerHale, and Paul Weiss are examples.
All the targeted firms have had ties with or represented a Democrat or someone President Trump perceives as an enemy. WilmerHale, for example, once housed Robert Mueller.
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/other/trump-is-spreading-chaos-through-the-law-sector/ss-AA1AY8l8
Mediaite: ‘Give Me a Break!’ Judge Shreds DOJ Attorney Defending Trump Executive Order Targeting Law Firm
A federal judge firmly swatted down a series of arguments from a Department of Justice attorney defending President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Jenner & Block LLP law firm at a hearing Monday, at one point uttering an exasperated “Give me a break!”
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Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has issued a series of executive orders targeting by name multiple BigLaw firms that represented prominent Democratic clients like Hillary Clinton, refused to represent him or other pro-MAGA causes, hired former federal prosecutors that investigated him, or worked on the criminal cases he was facing before he won re-election.
The president’s social media posts and executive orders often lambast these firms using language accusing them of being “dishonest” and a “dangerous” risk to national security. The sanctions he has sought to impose include stripping the security clearances of the firms’ attorneys and staff (critically important for certain types of federal legal cases), terminating contracts the firms had with federal agencies, barring the firms’ employees from federal buildings (again, a major obstacle for the lawyers to represent their clients), demanding firms abolish diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs, and threatening additional civil and criminal investigations against the firms.