1 week Ago By Rebecca Beitsch
(The Hill) - President Trump announced a series of agreements with five major law firms Friday, signing deals for some $600 million in pro bono work as the Trump administration continues its pressure campaign on the legal profession.Kirkland & Ellis, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Latham & Watkins all agreed to perform $125 million each in pro bono legal work — the highest figure seen yet in any of the agreements brokered by Trump with various legal firms.In exchange, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will withdraw letters sent to each of the firms asking questions about their hiring practices and implying firms’ efforts to diversify their workforce could violate employment laws.
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which was not contacted by the EEOC, signed a deal with the Trump administration for $100 million in pro bono work. That firm previously employed Todd Blanche, Trump’s former defense attorney and deputy attorney general, but forced him to leave when he took on Trump as a client.None of the firms immediately responded to requests for comment.
The deals bring to nine the number of firms that have struck agreements with Trump in the wake of numerous actions targeting major law offices.Trump signed orders stripping personnel at four major law firms of their security clearances. Attorneys at Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale were also barred from entering federal buildings while the government was ordered to suspend any contracts with the firms.
Those three have sued, each scoring initial victories blocking much of Trump’s executive orders from taking effect.Trump has separately signed an order broadly targeting the legal profession, encouraging the Justice Department to sanction attorneys who file “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation.” Critics have said the orders are designed to chill advocates and nonprofits across the country who routinely challenge Trump policies in court, as well as the major law firms who help back such litigation with pro bono work.
The deals signed by the five firms Friday, like those announced previously, call on the firms to take up pro bono work on a number of topics prioritized by the Trump administration.“President Trump and the Law Firms both support and agree to work on, including in the following areas: Assisting Veterans and other Public Servants, including, among others, members of the Military, Gold Star families, Law Enforcement, and First Responders; ensuring fairness in our Justice System; and combatting Antisemitism,” Trump wrote in announcing the deals on Truth Social.They also commit to not denying representation based on political views and to “give Fair and Equal consideration to Job Candidates, irrespective of their political beliefs, including Candidates who have served in the Trump Administration.
”In an email to staff obtained by The Hill, Kirkland and Ellis’s firm committee defended the deal.“The Firm will continue to determine which matters we take on – both pro bono and otherwise – consistent with our non-partisan mindset. In exchange, this resolves the EEOC’s investigation, including its broad request for information about our people and our clients, which we no longer will be required to provide, and we will not be the target of an executive order,” it wrote in the note.
“We made the decision to pursue this solution because at our very core our mission is to protect and support our people and our clients, and this agreement does both.” Updated at 1:57 p.m.
EDT.
