President Donald Trump has been hammering “Big Law” — the massive law firms that have indirectly subsidized the Democrats’ “lawfare” campaign against him, and that have encouraged lawyers to provide pro bono (free) work for the left.
Earlier this month, Trump issued an executive order targeting Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP after it hired former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who had orchestrated the persecution of Trump in the Stormy Daniels case.
Trump also noted that “a Paul Weiss partner and former leading prosecutor in the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought a pro bono suit” against January 6 defendants. Trump added:
Global law firms have for years played an outsized role in undermining the judicial process and in the destruction of bedrock American principles. Many have engaged in activities that make our communities less safe, increase burdens on local businesses, limit constitutional freedoms, and degrade the quality of American elections. Additionally, they have sometimes done so on behalf of clients, pro bono, or ostensibly “for the public good” — potentially depriving those who cannot otherwise afford the benefit of top legal talent the access to justice deserved by all. My Administration will no longer support taxpayer funds sponsoring such harm.
Trump suspended the firm’s security clearances and ordered federal contractors to end any business with it. He also flagged the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
Paul, Weiss soon capitulated, agreeing to provide $40 million in pro bono work for administration-friendly causes, committing to allow attorneys to work for politically conservative clients, and ending the firm’s DEI policies.
“Lawyers abandon the profession’s highest ideals when they engage in partisan decision-making, and betray the ethical obligation to represent those who are unpopular or disfavored in a particular environment,” Trump noted.
Trump had already targeted Perkins Coie, the Democrat-aligned firm responsible for hiring Fusion GPS on behalf of the Hillary Clinton (secretly, and in violation of federal campaign finance rules) to produce the so-called “Russia dossier” by former British spy Christopher Steele, a forgery that led to the years-long “Russia collusion” hoax.
This week, he expanded his executive orders to include Jenner & Block, which hired “collusion” prosecutor Andrew Weissman after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation ended in failure; and also included WilmerHale, another firm that has hired Mueller prosecutors and that has taken up a variety of causes favored by Democrats.
It remains to be seen whether these firms also fold. But they are finally facing the cost of their partisan behavior.
“Big Law” sits at the apex of a political pyramid that has served, until now, to institutionalize the power of the Democratic Party in American society.
While Democrats used frivolous Bar complaints to target lawyers and firms that dared to represent Trump, Democrat-aligned firms raked in business and enjoyed proximity to government power. Pro bono programs also allowed left-wing lawyers to continue the activism of their student days on the job.
Critics of the president claim that he is abusing his power to target his political opponents. The opposite is true: he is restoring balance and justice, allowing conservative attorneys and clients — as well as conservative law students — the same rights and opportunities that liberals have enjoyed.
While elite law schools are still, for now, dens of conformity, Big Law is getting a long-overdue reality check from Trump that will, hopefully, spread change throughout the system.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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