Yves here. It is delicious that the main firms of white shoes lawyers are experiencing bad tangible results to capitulate Trump’s demands, such as doing a pro bonus work for conservative pets (and not any of the left), such as defending the police and leaving initiatives ofi, such as the exodus of key partners and the main associates and even the shots by large customers. It will be more difficult to fulfill those pro bonus commitments in a closer staff and income level. As this publication documents, that is not a complete list of setback.
By Steven J. Harper, lawyer, attached professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Northwestern and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa, a story of Teamster and the Bubble of Bar Association, a profession in crisis. He has been a regular columnist of Moyers in Democracy, the news and guts of Dan Bray, and the American lawyer. Follow it at https://thelawyerbubble.com. Originally published in Common Dreams
The intimidation of the president was always intimidation and deterrence. Here is the sound it makes when not one, but many, other shoes begin to fall.
The great law firms that capitulated for the unconstitutional demands of President Donald Trump thought they were buying peace with their administration, preserving their relationships with customers and protecting their results.
Recent developments illustrate the growing magnitude of their mistake.
The fighters are winning
On May 2, the judge of the United States District Court, Beryl Howell, became the first court to issue a final decision that Trump’s executive orders aimed at large law firms violated the first, fifth and sixth amendments to the United States Constitution. In an opinion of 102 pages, the court shattered the Trump edict with a direct analysis that is likely that other courts will continue:
“In a turn worthy of shame in the theatrical phrase ‘we are going to kill all The lawyers ” [Trump’s Executive Order] Adopt the “we kill lawyers I don’t like“Send the clear message: the lawyer must keep the game line, or otherwise.
“Using the powers of the Federal Government to attack lawyers for their representation of clients and declare progressive employment policies in a manifest attempt to suppress and punish certain points of view, Hovever, is the Constitution, … or the State to punish or suppress the unfavorable expression.”
“That, however, is exactly what is happening here.”
For those who keep the score, Trump’s department has now lost all the fights of the Court on the subject. Jenner & Block, Wilmerhale and Susman Godfrey Obline imhedin the temporal relief of their executive orders, as well as Perkins Coie, who has now won a permanent mandate of Judge Howell.
Meanwhile, how are the companies that collapsed to Trump?
The other shoe falls: #1
After providing Trump for a war chest for a total of almost $ 1 billion in free legal services, establishment companies are now learning how he plans to use it. Previously, Trump had reflected on the use of lawyers of great laws on lease of coal and rates, but on April 28 things became real.
Trump issued an executive order entitled: “Strengthen and unleash the United States Police to persecute criminals and protect innocent citizens.”
The order emphasized the need to “protect and defend the agents of the law accused and abused by state or local officials.” He ordered the attorney general PAM Bondi to provide the necessary legal resources to defend those officials, including “Pro Bono Assistance from the private sector. ” [emphasis supplied]
In a nutshell, police officers accused of brutity and other misconduct will make the lawyers of the Great Law defend the issue – for free.
Meanwhile, traditional Pro bonus The causes, including the defense of immigrant rights, suffer the deterrent effect of Trump’s attack. Fearing their anger, they are decreasing the work that challenges their policies.
Settlement companies were already receiving a decline from their partners and associates, since many have left their companies. Trump’s freshly added page to his Pro bonus The catalog won help to recruit or retention. And as with all Trump’s things, there is no limiting principle. The appeasement never produces purpose.
The other shoe falls: #2
The declared reason for companies to capitulate Trump was a group that customers would leave any company that was not in Trump’s good thanks. That premise is either aging well.
On April 11, Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett agreed to provide $ 125 million in Pro bonus Work “and other free legal services” to causes designated by Trump.
On April 22, the firm informed the Chanery court of Delaware that it would no longer represent Microsoft in a case relationship with its 2023 Activision acquisition. On the same day, Jenner & Block replaced Simpson Thacher as Microsoft’s lawyer.
Losing a client to another company is not uncommon, and none of the players have commented on the Microsoft switch. But the capitulation for Trump has not carried a panacea to preserve customer relationships. A company that defies a non -stitionable order that threatens its existence is a company that many customers because they fight for them.
The other shoe falls: #3
On April 24, 16 members of the Chamber sent letters to nine companies that were established with Trump. Asking their motivations and urging them to reject the agreements, legislators suggested that the agreements can violate federal and state criminal laws while creating “potentially irresoluble violations of the applicable rules of professional conduct.” Previously, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) And representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD.) Sent requests for information from several companies and advisors of the White House on April 6 and 18.
The other program falls: #4
The companies assumed that the capitulation would occupy a single news cycle and then disappear. But their public relations nightmares will not disappear. In addition to the generalized and continuous conviction of the legal community, history continues to have the legs as a fateful moment for the rule of law in the United States.
The May 4 edition of CBSS 60 minutes He made a condemnatory segment on large law firms that were established with Trump. None were willing to appear and defend ITELF or his agreement. The legal term for such continuous cowardice is Res ipsa loquitur – The thing speaks for itself. In this case, companies did not speak at all.
On May 9, an article that later appeared in the New York Times Sunday Print Edition was executed with this headline and subtitle:
Can elite lawyers be persuaded to “wake up and stand up”?
When the law firm Paul Weiss reached an agreement with the Trump administration, a new child or activist emerged.
Some of the settlement companies, including Kirkland & Ellis and at least another, have an escape hatch: their “handshake agreements” with Trump are not in writing. They can do what Trump does when he doesn’t like his own previous agreement: move away.
In fact, even companies with a written agreement can also get away. Whatever its form, the offers are likely to force nuts. But that was never Trump’s main objective. It was always intimidation and deterrence. When companies are the knee for him, he won and won an invaluable public relations victory.
And his unexpected gain of billions of dollars did not hurt.
