{"id":133428,"date":"2025-09-16T14:12:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/16\/theres-no-absolution-for-biglaw-firms-suing-the-administration-after-bending-a-knee-to-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:12:38","slug":"theres-no-absolution-for-biglaw-firms-suing-the-administration-after-bending-a-knee-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/16\/theres-no-absolution-for-biglaw-firms-suing-the-administration-after-bending-a-knee-to-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s No Absolution For Biglaw Firms Suing The Administration After Bending A Knee To Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above the Law has spent a lot of time and digital ink decrying the cowardly decision of nine Biglaw firms<\/a> to bend a knee to Donald Trump and ink deals promising $940 million in pro bono payola for conservative causes. These deals have garnered a lot of criticism from\u00a0around the industry.<\/a>\u00a0since the Executive Orders that were threatened were\u00a0unconstitutional<\/a>\u00a0power grabs and many wondered, if a firm won\u2019t stand up to the bullying of the Trump administration for themselves,\u00a0how will they do it for clients?<\/a><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not so cut and dried. After showing their belly, several of the firms decided to use their lawyerly skill to work against Trump\u2019s agenda. We made a big deal when Milbank cut their billing rate<\/a>s to fight on behalf of so-called sanctuary cites. Plus they\u2019re working against Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> in court. And when Skadden took on a pro bono client that runs afoul of Trump\u2019s preferred immigration goals, it was worthy of cheers. <\/a><\/p>\n

Skadden and Milbank aren\u2019t alone. Reuters reports<\/a> Latham filed a lawsuit against the administration after it stopped construction on a Danish energy company\u2019s Rhode Island offshore wind farm. Plus, Willkie Farr is representing the Arlington, VA and Fairfax, VA school districts over the Department of Education\u2019s threatened funding freeze over their bathroom policies.<\/p>\n

These are certainly good developments. These are absolutely clients and causes worthy of the power and might of Biglaw. But make no mistake: this doesn\u2019t count as absolution.<\/p>\n

The deals that Biglaw struck with Trump were the beginning of the erosion of the rule of law. The toehold that the far-right needed to push more and more blatantly unconstitutional policies. And now that everyone to the left of Kash Patel is being investigated by the administration, fingers are absolutely being pointed.<\/p>\n

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So I’m wondering today how all the lawyers at firms that caved to Trump\u2014and also Sullivan & Cromwell, which is representing him on his criminal appeal\u2014are feeling about how things are going?Are your salaries and draws worth it?buff.ly\/figcCyz<\/p>\n

\u2014 George Conway \ud83d\udc4a\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udd25 (@gtconway.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-09-15T17:51:18.947Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Was it worth it? Well, Paul Weiss sure seems to think so. <\/a><\/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 There\u2019s No Absolution For Biglaw Firms Suing The Administration After Bending A Knee To Trump<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Above the Law has spent a lot of time and digital ink decrying the cowardly decision of nine Biglaw firms<\/a> to bend a knee to Donald Trump and ink deals promising $940 million in pro bono payola for conservative causes. These deals have garnered a lot of criticism from\u00a0around the industry.<\/a>\u00a0since the Executive Orders that were threatened were\u00a0unconstitutional<\/a>\u00a0power grabs and many wondered, if a firm won\u2019t stand up to the bullying of the Trump administration for themselves,\u00a0how will they do it for clients?<\/a><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not so cut and dried. After showing their belly, several of the firms decided to use their lawyerly skill to work against Trump\u2019s agenda. We made a big deal when Milbank cut their billing rate<\/a>s to fight on behalf of so-called sanctuary cites. Plus they\u2019re working against Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> in court. And when Skadden took on a pro bono client that runs afoul of Trump\u2019s preferred immigration goals, it was worthy of cheers. <\/a><\/p>\n

Skadden and Milbank aren\u2019t alone. Reuters reports<\/a> Latham filed a lawsuit against the administration after it stopped construction on a Danish energy company\u2019s Rhode Island offshore wind farm. Plus, Willkie Farr is representing the Arlington, VA and Fairfax, VA school districts over the Department of Education\u2019s threatened funding freeze over their bathroom policies.<\/p>\n

These are certainly good developments. These are absolutely clients and causes worthy of the power and might of Biglaw. But make no mistake: this doesn\u2019t count as absolution.<\/p>\n

The deals that Biglaw struck with Trump were the beginning of the erosion of the rule of law. The toehold that the far-right needed to push more and more blatantly unconstitutional policies. And now that everyone to the left of Kash Patel is being investigated by the administration, fingers are absolutely being pointed.<\/p>\n

Was it worth it? Well, Paul Weiss sure seems to think so. <\/a><\/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":"

Above the Law has spent a lot of time and digital ink decrying the cowardly decision of nine Biglaw firms to bend a knee to Donald Trump and ink deals promising $940 million in pro bono payola for conservative causes. These deals have garnered a lot of criticism from\u00a0around the industry.\u00a0since the Executive Orders that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133429,"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-133428","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\/09\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-EqFNIv.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133428","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=133428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}