2 weeks Ago By Suzanne Nossel
President Donald Trump vowed retribution in a second term, and he has more than delivered on that promise. Among the many in the president’s crosshairs is “ Big Law .” Targeting one leading firm after another, the president is punishing law firms that handle high-profile government and corporate business, several of which have represented causes and individuals that Trump regards as hostile to him or his political agenda.
In face of the president’s crackdown, some rolled over almost instantly, while others have stood firmly in defiance. The vaunted American bar now faces an inflection point. The coming days may reveal whether the momentum breaks in favor of courage or capitulation.
It started on Feb. 25, when Trump targeted Covington & Burling , signing an executive order to review the firm’s federal contracts and suspend security clearances for lawyers representing former special counsel Jack Smith. Smith had brought two indictments against Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election and improperly retaining and storing classified material in his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House in 2021.
Trump denied any wrongdoing in both cases. On March 6, the president then singled out Perkins Coie , a firm that had represented Trump’s 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton and had hired an investigator who put together a dossier (later discredited) on Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. He not only stripped the firms’ lawyers of their security clearances; he also banned the lawyers from interacting with the government or even entering federal buildings, reportedly causing some clients who had business with the government to flee to other firms.
More attacks on other firms followed. At least three firms – Perkins Coie , Jenner & Block and WilmerHale – are fighting back in court. But four others – Paul Weiss ; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom ; Willkie Farr & Gallagher ; and, most recently, Milbank – have already buckled under pressure, They have made cringeworthy concessions that Trump demanded, including agreeing to outside reviews of diversity hiring practices and collectively devoting hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono legal work to causes hand-picked by Trump.
Ross Haenfler April 3, 2025 Trump publicly gloated that “nobody can believe it, including law firms that have been so horrible, law firms that, nobody would believe this, [are] just saying, ‘Where do I sign? Where do I sign?’” The next few weeks may reveal whether the American virtue of moral courage can still prevail in a profession and a society that prizes pragmatism, financial success and, if the Trump administration has its way, obeisance. The poet Maya Angelou championed courage as “the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.” Whether it was George Washington facing down the British Army or Black seamstress Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus, courage is the stuff of national legend.
We rely on brave attorneys to have the backs of unflinching Americans in their fights for justice. From the Tennessee lawyers who took the case for gay marriage to the Supreme Court and notched a transformative victory to the civil rights attorneys who championed a banned NAACP in 1960s Alabama, we count on lawyers to take bold stands. Daring activists, inventors, journalists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs and publishers would not be able to make the leaps of faith necessary to drive forward society without the support of attorneys protecting them from legal jeopardy.
The ideals of the legal profession are rooted in courage, because zealous counsel demands taking risks. The premise of our adversarial system of justice is that everyone deserves representation, and that attorneys have a duty to champion unpopular causes in the interests of a fair system. Lawyers swear an oath not to compromise legal precepts and professional standards, no matter the pressures they face.
That prominent and potent firms are being backed into corners is a function of a presidency run amok and a Congress that has abdicated its duty. Trump’s acts of extortion are precision-targeted to sow divisions and shatter the spirit of liberal institutions. Cowardice is also contagious.
Tech leaders have taken their cue from Elon Musk and cozied up to the president . Republican members of Congress have rubber stamped unqualified Cabinet nominees. National security leaders have jettisoned their long-held principles and positions to abet Trump’s decimation of foreign assistance to developing countries, his threats to cut off Ukraine aid, his menacing of Canada and even his coddling of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin.
Their cravenness normalizes caving in as a rational and perhaps unavoidable response to Trump. The leaders of targeted law firms are in tight spots. They face clients fearful of getting on Trump’s bad side and competitors moving to steal their business and talent.
Yet, like the Ivy League universities also in Trump’s crosshairs , these institutions are healthy and wealthy by any standard. The law firms suing the government on the grounds that Trump’s executive orders are illegal are taking a risk, but early indications are that it may work. At least two federal judges have temporarily blocked Trump’s orders.
Those that buckled tell themselves they have done so without forfeiting institutional ideals. But for independent entities to legitimize lawless browbeating is a step toward authoritarian rule. With these firms’ initial concessions signed, sealed and delivered to Trump, the question is whether the drumbeat of surrender will intensify or abate.
Rick Wilson Nov. 8, 2024 Those firms who are standing up to the pressure may hope that their integrity burnishes their reputations as fearless advocates. Lead partners at Jenner & Block, which won a temporary stay against Trump’s order, proclaimed that giving in “is simply not in our DNA.
” Not everyone has what it takes to defy a bully, much less the president of the United States. Those who do so deserve support. Ultimately, it is not the most zealous among us who determine whether authoritarianism prevails, but rather the passive legions who enable cowardice or courage.
We have a responsibility to speak up. Public statements of approval for the firms bucking Trump’s demands – and pf opprobrium for those who are buckling under pressure will motivate partners to do the right thing. Big corporations should announce that they are hiring law firms that stand up to extortionate pressure.
The famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence is that “we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” The same is true today. Yet according to reporting by the New York Times , none of the top 10 U.
S. law firms by revenue agreed to sign the legal brief supporting Perkins Coie , filed today. They may believe they have the most to lose financially from standing up to Trump, but it’s also true that their endorsements would hold the heaviest sway in galvanizing the profession as a whole in a united front.
On the other hand, more than 50 U.S. bar associations , including the American Bar Association, have spoken out against Trump’s possibly unconstitutional executive orders that undermine the rule of law.
An open letter from nearly 80 law school deans defending the firms under attack was also heartening. But the absence of most leaders of top 10 law schools on the letter was conspicuous. Solidarity is the antidote to fear.
Powerful joint messages inspire rising generations of budding lawyers, instead of prompting them to quit over ideals betrayed. If the legal profession remains divided, it is more likely to be conquered. Courage respected and rewarded begets more courage.
We need to stand up for those who hold firm, and act on disappointment with those who buckle under. Time will tell if Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps and others have saved their firms. But we already know they haven’t saved their profession or their nation.
Suzanne Nossel stepped down in late 2024 as chief executive officer of PEN America, a nonprofit advocacy group that champions free expression. She previously served as a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs..
