New Orleans The backstory is simple. Trump attached some big law firms that were on his enemies list early on his second term revenge tour. They had hired lawyers who had opposed him or been part of investigations. Some had represented immigrant and other groups opposing his policies. He ordered lawyers for the firms to be stripped of security clearances, barred from entry to public agencies, and left off the list for future government business. Some didn’t so much run to cover as immediately wave a white flag and crawl to the White House or other Trump whispers trying to make a deal. The deals ended up being almost a billion dollars in free, pro bono work on issues that some think will be mutually decided, and Trump and some of his top aides think will be by his dictates.
Four big firms pushed back and filed suit, claiming that the president’s moves breeched their free speech along with other constitutional violations. To date, federal judges haven’t blinked and have blocked Trump’s attack on these firms, making them all winners.
The firms that bent the knee rationalized that it was a business decision. They would lose contracts. Being sanctioned, they argued they would lose some of their partners and ability to recruit new lawyers while under attack. For some, their government business was existential.
Doing so, many ended up reaping the whirlwind internally. Some partners left, rejecting the surrender, to start new firms. Young associates circulated petitions. Hundreds of law firms signed letters supporting the firms that stood tall and deriding the ones who caved in.
Big corporate clients are also having a say on these diametrically opposed strategies. The Wall Street Journal reports that a big private equity firm, run by mega Republican donors, have held meetings with groups of lawyers saying in not so veiled terms that when they hire lawyers, they are looking for firms that are up for a fight, not a group of lawyers that would buck and run at the first signs of conflict. The list is long…
At least 11 big companies are moving work away from law firms that settled with the administration or are giving—or intend to give—more business to firms that have been targeted but refused to strike deals, according to general counsels at those companies and other people familiar with those decisions. Among them are technology giant Oracle, investment bank Morgan Stanley, an airline and a pharmaceutical company. Microsoft expressed reservations about working with a firm that struck a deal, and another such firm stopped representing McDonald’s in a case a few months before a scheduled trial. In interviews, general counsels expressed concern about whether they could trust law firms that struck deals to fight for them in court and in negotiating big deals if they weren’t willing to stand up for themselves against Trump. The general counsel of a manufacturer of medical supplies said that if firms facing White House pressure “don’t have a hard line,” they don’t have any line at all.
It turns out there are consequences. Don’t shed too many tears for these mega-firms, because many will keep a long and rich client list of companies that are trying to curry favor with the White House like Meta, Apple, Amazon, and similar supplicants.
It really shouldn’t be a hard call. Who wants a lawyer who isn’t fighting for them and is afraid of every barking dog? Not me? How about you?