By Mike Scarcella, David Thomas and Sara Merken
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s targeting of major law firms over their diversity policies and political clients has earned condemnation from law professors, bar associations and a federal judge – but not, so far, from other law firms.
Instead, the public reaction from large corporate firms has come mainly from a few of their lawyers, via LinkedIn posts and an online effort involving junior lawyers at Skadden and other firms to encourage a larger institutional response.
Partners at top firms who have denounced Trump’s actions on social media have stressed that they are not speaking for their employers. A partner at Polsinelli, who criticized Trump’s orders targeting other law firms on LinkedIn, deleted a post accusing the government of “trying to destroy the rule of law and instill fear” after she was contacted by Reuters on Monday.
Reuters contacted 30 of the largest U.S. firms, including some representing clients suing the Trump administration over other matters, for their response to recent government actions against law firms. All either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
An early sign emerged on Tuesday that Munger Tolles & Olson may be organizing other law firms to file a friend-of-the-court brief challenging an executive order Trump issued against Perkins Coie. A legal executive at GE Healthcare, Mara Senn, said in a LinkedIn post that the firm would be submitting the brief next month and encouraged others to sign on.
Senn, GE Healthcare and lawyers at Munger did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
No major law firm that was not directly targeted by Trump has spoken publicly against the president’s actions other than Williams & Connolly, which is representing Perkins Coie in its lawsuit challenging the White House executive order.
Trump issued his latest law firm executive order on Friday against Paul Weiss, a litigation and dealmaking powerhouse whose 1,000-plus lawyers advise some of the country’s largest financial and technology companies.
On Monday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sent letters to 20 large firms demanding extensive details about their lawyers’ demographics in a broad crackdown on legal industry diversity efforts.
The Paul Weiss and Perkins Coie orders suspended their lawyers’ security clearances and restricted their access to government buildings, officials and federal contracting work. Trump also last month suspended security clearances of two lawyers at Covington & Burling, in each case citing the firms’ past work for his political or legal opponents.
MARSHALING SUPPORT
Twenty U.S. states and the District of Columbia filed a court brief backing Perkins Coie last week, calling Trump’s executive order “menacing” and a threat to the practice of law across the country. The American Bar Association and other professional groups have also issued statements backing the targeted firms.
Organized efforts to mount a joint response by large law firms have yet to yield concrete results, however.
As of Tuesday afternoon, an open letter urging major firms “to defend their colleagues and the legal profession” from Trump’s actions had 444 signatories who identified themselves as associates at dozens of firms. The letter did not name the lawyers, only their firms.
Associates at three of the firms told Reuters they were looking for more ways to support those targeted by Trump, such as advocating for their firms to sign onto a legal brief backing Perkins Coie’s lawsuit.
“It can’t stop with saying, largely anonymously, someone should really do something about this,” said Rachel Cohen, a banking associate at Skadden who was an early organizer of the letter.
Cohen said she was speaking only for herself. A spokesperson for Skadden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bar has been caught off guard by how quickly Trump has moved “to dismantle the rule of law and American-style checks and balances in this country,” said Daniel McCuaig, an antitrust litigator at plaintiffs law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
McCuaig, speaking on his own behalf, said lawyers especially “need to start raising their voices now to turn this tide.”
McCuaig’s firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AVOIDING RISK
Legal experts said concerns about the reaction of their corporate clients and potential retribution from the administration are helping to mute law firms’ response to the president’s actions so far.
“Most lawyers are risk averse. They are not naturally brave,” said Leslie Levin, a legal ethics scholar at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “You need to be brave to speak out under the present circumstances.”
Perkins Coie’s lawsuit said at least seven of its clients, including a major government contractor, have already withdrawn legal work because of Trump’s executive order or were considering doing so, costing the firm “significant revenue.”
A federal judge last week granted Perkins Coie’s request to temporarily block parts of the order against it, saying the legal industry was “watching in horror” at what the law firm was experiencing.
(Reporting by David Thomas in Chicago, Mike Scarcella in Washington and Sara Merken in New York; Editing by David Bario and Richard Chang)
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