{"id":113875,"date":"2025-04-07T13:03:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T21:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/07\/doug-emhoff-critical-of-willkie-farrs-decision-to-bow-to-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T13:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T21:03:45","slug":"doug-emhoff-critical-of-willkie-farrs-decision-to-bow-to-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/07\/doug-emhoff-critical-of-willkie-farrs-decision-to-bow-to-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Emhoff Critical Of Willkie Farr\u2019s Decision To Bow To Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given the Trump administration\u2019s focus on retribution, perhaps Willkie Farr correctly suspected<\/a> it would soon be targeted with one of the likely unconstitutional<\/a> Executive Orders that are making their way through Biglaw. After all, the former Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, is a recent hire as well as two former investigators for the congressional committee on the January 6th attack. Plus, Willkie represented the Georgia poll workers,\u00a0Ruby Freeman<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Shaye Moss<\/a>, who took\u00a0down Rudy Giuliani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the firm\u2019s decision to capitulate<\/a> to the administration, offering $100 million in pro bono payola to benefit conservative causes and clients, was a lot more controversial. According to reports<\/a>, not all partners even knew this was going to happen before the news broke. But it seems Emhoff was looped in \u2014 and he disagreed with the firm\u2019s call.<\/p>\n

As reported by<\/a> CNN:<\/p>\n

\n

Emhoff told the crowd at the\u00a0Annual Dinner Gala for the legal aid group Bet Tzedek<\/a>\u00a0he had told the firm he wanted to fight the threat of an executive order he found unconstitutional but had been overruled, the sources said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which is great, I guess. But not as forceful as his wife\u2019s comments<\/a> during the Leading Women Defined Summit, calling out a \u201csense of fear.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re seeing people stay quiet,\u201d Kamala Harris said. \u201cWe are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly to unconstitutional threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to track exactly which Biglaw firms are staying quiet, which are bowing to Trump, and which are fighting the good fight, check out the Biglaw Spine Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Doug Emhoff Critical Of Willkie Farr\u2019s Decision To Bow To Donald Trump<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given the Trump administration\u2019s focus on retribution, perhaps Willkie Farr correctly suspected<\/a> it would soon be targeted with one of the likely unconstitutional<\/a> Executive Orders that are making their way through Biglaw. After all, the former Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, is a recent hire as well as two former investigators for the congressional committee on the January 6th attack. Plus, Willkie represented the Georgia poll workers,\u00a0Ruby Freeman<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Shaye Moss<\/a>, who took\u00a0down Rudy Giuliani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the firm\u2019s decision to capitulate<\/a> to the administration, offering $100 million in pro bono payola to benefit conservative causes and clients, was a lot more controversial. According to reports<\/a>, not all partners even knew this was going to happen before the news broke. But it seems Emhoff was looped in \u2014 and he disagreed with the firm\u2019s call.<\/p>\n

As reported by<\/a> CNN:<\/p>\n

\n

Emhoff told the crowd at the\u00a0Annual Dinner Gala for the legal aid group Bet Tzedek<\/a>\u00a0he had told the firm he wanted to fight the threat of an executive order he found unconstitutional but had been overruled, the sources said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which is great, I guess. But not as forceful as his wife\u2019s comments<\/a> during the Leading Women Defined Summit, calling out a \u201csense of fear.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re seeing people stay quiet,\u201d Kamala Harris said. \u201cWe are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly to unconstitutional threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to track exactly which Biglaw firms are staying quiet, which are bowing to Trump, and which are fighting the good fight, check out the Biglaw Spine Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Doug Emhoff Critical Of Willkie Farr\u2019s Decision To Bow To Donald Trump<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images) Given the Trump administration\u2019s focus on retribution, perhaps Willkie Farr correctly suspected it would soon be targeted with one of the likely unconstitutional Executive Orders that are making their way through Biglaw. After all, the former Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, is a recent hire as well as two former investigators […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/doug-emhoff-kamala-harris-GettyImages-1267250943-620x447-AUEKdL.jpeg?fit=620%2C447&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}