{"id":124446,"date":"2025-06-27T07:03:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/27\/milbanks-spine-makes-a-reappearance\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T07:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:03:22","slug":"milbanks-spine-makes-a-reappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/27\/milbanks-spine-makes-a-reappearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Milbank\u2019s Spine Makes A Reappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nine Biglaw firms <\/a>that capitulated to the threats of Donald Trump and agreed to provide hundred of million<\/a>s in pro bono payola to conservative clients and causes<\/a> have garnered a lot of criticism from around the industry.<\/a> And for good reason \u2014 the Executive Orders that were threatened were unconstitutional<\/a> power grabs and many wondered, if a firm won\u2019t stand up to the bullying of the Trump administration for themselves, how will they do it for clients?<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, Milbank is showing the world that despite inking a deal with the administration, they just might be willing to court<\/a> Trump\u2019s ire. Back in April,<\/a> Milbank promised $100 million for Trump\u2019s pro bono war chest to avoid an onerous EO. But yesterday, the firm signed onto a lawsuit challenging some of Trump\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Milbank partner and former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, along with former federal judge Michael McConnell, now at Wilson Sonsini, have signed on to be co-counsel<\/a> in a case challenging the president\u2019s so-called \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs. Katyal said in a statement, \u201cThese presidential actions fall on the wrong side of the line. I look forward to vindicating our Founders\u2019 view of the separation of powers, and to restoring the primacy of Congress over such major questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are a group of small businesses impacted by the tariffs. Represented by the libertarian-leaning legal non-profit the Liberty Justice Center, they won<\/a> a case in front of the U.S. Court of International Trade arguing that Trump overstepped his authority. The government has appealed the decision (as well as a separate decision against the tariffs), and plaintiffs brought in the Biglaw guns for the appellate fight.<\/p>\n

It must be quite reassuring t<\/a>o clients, as well as the rank-and-file at the firm, to know that Milbank is more than just the administration\u2019s legal lapdog.<\/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 Milbank\u2019s Spine Makes A Reappearance<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The nine Biglaw firms <\/a>that capitulated to the threats of Donald Trump and agreed to provide hundred of million<\/a>s in pro bono payola to conservative clients and causes<\/a> have garnered a lot of criticism from around the industry.<\/a> And for good reason \u2014 the Executive Orders that were threatened were unconstitutional<\/a> power grabs and many wondered, if a firm won\u2019t stand up to the bullying of the Trump administration for themselves, how will they do it for clients?<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, Milbank is showing the world that despite inking a deal with the administration, they just might be willing to court<\/a> Trump\u2019s ire. Back in April,<\/a> Milbank promised $100 million for Trump\u2019s pro bono war chest to avoid an onerous EO. But yesterday, the firm signed onto a lawsuit challenging some of Trump\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Milbank partner and former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, along with former federal judge Michael McConnell, now at Wilson Sonsini, have signed on to be co-counsel<\/a> in a case challenging the president\u2019s so-called \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs. Katyal said in a statement, \u201cThese presidential actions fall on the wrong side of the line. I look forward to vindicating our Founders\u2019 view of the separation of powers, and to restoring the primacy of Congress over such major questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are a group of small businesses impacted by the tariffs. Represented by the libertarian-leaning legal non-profit the Liberty Justice Center, they won<\/a> a case in front of the U.S. Court of International Trade arguing that Trump overstepped his authority. The government has appealed the decision (as well as a separate decision against the tariffs), and plaintiffs brought in the Biglaw guns for the appellate fight.<\/p>\n

It must be quite reassuring t<\/a>o clients, as well as the rank-and-file at the firm, to know that Milbank is more than just the administration\u2019s legal lapdog.<\/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 @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nine Biglaw firms that capitulated to the threats of Donald Trump and agreed to provide hundred of millions in pro bono payola to conservative clients and causes have garnered a lot of criticism from around the industry. And for good reason \u2014 the Executive Orders that were threatened were unconstitutional power grabs and many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124309,"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-124446","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\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-YaRXAR.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124446","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=124446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}