US advocacy groups and small legal offices fear Big Law will retreat from civil rights cases after Donald Trumpโs executive orders put pressure on firms to choose between ethics and profits.
The Trump administration has launched attacks on perceived opponents in the legal sector, directing federal agencies to suspend security clearances and review or end contracts with the law firms WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block and Paul, Weiss.ย He also issued an executive order against Covington & Burling that was narrower in scope.
While some firms have launched challenges, legal juggernaut Paul, Weiss and others have instead negotiated deals that include pro bono work.
The capitulation, and the anxiety of other firms that they may be next, is fuelling fears that the big law firms that have helped fight some of the most high-profile civil rights battles in American history may now retreat to avoid Trumpโs wrath.ย
This would be disastrous for the non-profits and advocacy groups that work closely with vulnerable communities and rely heavily on the resources of large law firms.ย
If Big Law is โunwilling to take those cases on, that does leave a huge gapโ, said Jessie Weber, managing partner at Brown Goldstein & Levy, a mid-sized law firm with a strong civil rights practice. โWe have capacity limitationsโ.โ.โ.โI am concerned about there not being enough attorneys who can really take these matters on.โ
Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, an LGBT advocacy group, warned the move would be โvery harmfulโ for his organisation, which has less than half a dozen attorneys and depends on law firmsโ pro bono support.
โIt would also send a terrible message to courts and to the public that we donโt have the support of the mainstream legal community,โ Minter added.ย
A retreat by Big Law would also deal a blow to advocacy efforts on issues spanning criminal justice and immigration to abortion and LGBT rights, as the Trump administration guts civil rights enforcement while taking steps that critics say violate such protections under the law.ย
The Justice department directed its lawyers in January to halt civil rights litigation. The government is seeking to deport students on green cards linked to pro-Palestinian protests, curb gender transition and clamp down on homelessness.
If large law firms stopped participating in such cases en masse, โunquestionably civil rights would suffer in this countryโ, said Michael Langley, executive director at Florida Justice Institute, a non-profit law firm focused on rights in the state. โI think thatโs the administrationโs goal, unfortunately.โย
Big Law has a long history of participating in civil rights cases. Paul, Weiss has worked on cases against state abortion laws and racial segregation; Kirkland & Ellis has defended voter rights; Latham & Watkins has advocated for asylum seekers.ย ย ย
Their retreat may have already started.ย A senior lawyer in the Washington area said they were assessing a case about โreally atrocious treatmentโ of immigrants after a large law firm broke its partnership with a non-profit out of โfearโ.
Non-profits warn that a drop in such challenges would have profound consequences for civil rights during Trumpโs second presidency.ย
When the government ordered that transgender women be moved to male prisons and blocked medical care for them, groups including NCLR, alongside law firm Lowenstein Sandler โ whose support was โessentialโ, said Minter โ filed a constitutional challenge against the measure, which was temporarily blocked.ย
If they โhad been transferred to male prisons, everyone knew exactly what would happenโ, Minter said. โThey would be raped. They would be sexually assaulted.โ
It remains unclear how many mainstream firms will shun such civil rights cases.ย
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has brought more than 20 lawsuits against the government since Trumpโs return to the White House in January, is โnot going to slow downโ, said Ben Winzer, a lawyer at the organisation.ย
A nationwide non-profit with 500 staff attorneys, the ACLU draws from law firmsโ resources, but it often litigates cases independently.ย ย
โWhether we have assistance from Big Law or not, we are going to continue to bring the same cases that we would have otherwise brought before courts, and we will find people to help us when we need it,โ he added.
Winzer does not believe that the entire sector will submit to the presidentโs wishes.
โI just cannot believe that a few orders targeting a few law firms are going to sideline the entire profession,โ he said, pointing out that a federal judge found Trumpโs directive against Perkins illegal and halted critical parts of it. Other federal judges have followed suit in separate cases.ย
Langley, at Florida Justice Institute, said Trumpโs broadsides against the legal industry and civil rights are a โreminder that the legal system can create positive change in our communities, but really in the wrong hands can do more harm than goodโ.ย
โNo one is above the law,โ he said. โNo one should be beneath it either.โย
