Little Rock Some big, national law firms kowtowing to President Trump after he threatened to sanction them, pretty much for spite, folded like cheap suits. In various cases the beef was the fact that they had represented clients who had sued him or had partners who were on his personal “enemies” list. The threats were extensive, barring them from government contract, security clearances, and even access to government agencies and properties. None of this was necessarily legal, as lawyers should have full well known, and other big league law firms in the top twenty in the country, elected to pushback, and have thus far all successfully won restraining orders against the administration.
The ones that caved supposedly made deals, most of which involved huge commitments of pro bono legal work, now totaling up to about one billion in promised free work. Initially, these deals were described by the parties as being available to groups and causes needing such assistance as recommended by the president. Some of the firm leaders attempted to describe some of the pro bono work as within the scope of what they would have normally done anyway. Others have tried to argue that implementing the pro bono work would be by mutual agreement between the firm and the administration. Many represented the agreements would entail work on “uncontroversial issues like helping veterans.”
Out here in the cheap seats all of these so-called agreements looked sketchy. It looked like it might be a billion dollar or more war chest for conservative groups to access on specious grounds as part of the president’s battleground assaults. As more information leaks out, predictably, there was no meeting of the minds between the firms and the administration on what would count as pro bono in fulfillment of their pledges. Many of the agreements seem not to have even been in writing or were handshake deals, often with fixers for Trump. None of these deals seem to have the color of being official agreements with the government. It makes it hard to believe that these were high-priced, white shoe lawyers doing such sloppy work.
As has become clear about almost every deal the president or administration makes, any agreement simply opens the door to more demands. For those of us who always knew this would be seen by Trump as his own personal war chest against one and all who he perceives as in his way, these deals now seem every bit as bad as we feared. As reported by the Times,
But now that nine firms have agreed to deals and committed to nearly $1 billion worth of pro bono legal work, some Trump advisers have started having discussions about a range of options for what the firms’ lawyers can be deployed to work on, according to two people briefed on the matter. That work could include sending the lawyers to help Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency or deploying them to aid the Justice Department, they said. White House officials believe that some of the pro bono legal work could even be used toward representing Mr. Trump or his allies if they became ensnared in investigations, according to the two people.
Didn’t these hot shots understand who they were dealing with on the other side of table. Many of these deals seem to have been handled by Trump’s personal lawyer, not a White House counsel. Wow, a freshly-minted lawyer just passing the bar would negotiate better agreements. I can’t imagine what the in-house counsels for Fortune 500 companies might be thinking as they consider this mess and wonder what kind of advice and representation they are getting from these $1000 per hour folks.
In trying to rationalize their surrender, some of the firms have whined in public that Trump’s threats were “existential,” and they might not have been able to survive and have lost all of their clients in the cutthroat competition between firms, if he followed through. Seems like they are in Trump purgatory now. I wonder how many of their clients will still be with them as these bad deals continue to humiliate the firms and their attorneys and embarrass themselves, as clients, with their shoddy work and vacuous principles?