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Former President Barack Obama ripped Big Law firms for caving to the Trump administration just to protect their careers and fund their lavish lifestyles.
Obama was speaking at a private fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday when he expressed disappointment at how some of the country’s top law firms had “set aside the law” in the face of President Donald Trump’s attacks.
Obama said some lawyers were giving way to Trump not because they were “going to be thrown in jail, but because they might lose a few clients and might not be able to finish that kitchen rehab at their Hampton house.”
“I’m not impressed,” Obama said, per remarks obtained by MSNBC.
Obama’s ties to Big Law go back to his Harvard Law School days. After his first year of law school, the former president worked as a summer associate at Sidley & Austin.
Before entering politics, Obama worked as a civil rights attorney at the litigation firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland.
Since February, Trump has issued executive orders targeting Big Law firms like Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling. In his orders, Trump accused the firms of weaponizing the judicial system and stripped them of their security clearances. He also ordered reviews of each firm’s contracts with the government.
Some law firms, such as Paul Weiss and Kirkland & Ellis, struck deals with Trump and promised to do pro bono legal work for conservative causes. Others, like Perkins Coie and WilmerHale, chose to fight back and filed lawsuits against the Trump administration.
In his remarks, Obama took aim at universities that chose to find room for compromise with Trump.
Obama’s alma mater, Columbia University, gave in to the administration’s demands after it slashed $400 million in federal funding. The Trump administration said the cuts were because of the university’s failure to combat anti-semitism when protests over Israel’s war in Gaza erupted on campus.
“If your core mission, if your core value is to teach, you may teach without compromising values of academic independence. Yeah, you may lose some grant money temporarily. That’s why you have those big endowments,” Obama said on Friday.
Obama has continued to be a vocal critic of Trump and his administration.
Last month, Obama told attendees at The Connecticut Forum on June 17 that the US was on the verge of becoming an autocracy under Trump.
“We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that,” Obama said.
Representatives for Obama did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
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