{"id":134229,"date":"2025-10-01T16:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/01\/filling-in-the-void-caused-by-biglaws-cowardice\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:01:38","slug":"filling-in-the-void-caused-by-biglaws-cowardice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/01\/filling-in-the-void-caused-by-biglaws-cowardice\/","title":{"rendered":"Filling In The Void Caused By Biglaw\u2019s Cowardice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0war on Biglaw<\/a>, through\u00a0unconstitutional Executive Orders<\/a>\u00a0designed\u00a0to break major law firms<\/a>\u00a0unless they\u00a0bend a knee<\/a>\u00a0to Trump, has already had a tremendous impact on the industry. In the\u00a0face of financial harm,\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0nine major firms\u00a0sought<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s seal of approval, providing pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of\u00a0conservative clients or causes<\/a>\u00a0in order to avoid Trumpian retribution. But\u00a0the chilling effect<\/a>\u00a0is even greater than those capitulating firms, because pro bono and public interest representations\u00a0by Biglaw firms<\/a>\u00a0are down \u2014\u00a0significantly<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as firms don\u2019t want to risk Trump\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n

There have been<\/a> a few examples<\/a> of Biglaw firms<\/a> that capitulated to Trump stepping up<\/a> to provide the kinds of legal representation the nation is particularly desperate for in 2025, but it\u2019s far from enough<\/a> to cover the need that exists. It\u2019s clear that Biglaw\u00a0isn\u2019t going to be<\/a>\u00a0our savior, and small and boutique law firms<\/a> have helped fill in the gap. But the legal landscape keeps on getting worse, and it\u2019s really an all-hands-on-deck moment.<\/p>\n

Good thing there\u2019s Democracy Forward, a 501(c)(3) legal organization that has more than 100 actions against the Trump administration in 2025. As\u00a0Skye Perryman, CEO and president, told Law.com<\/a>, \u201cThe demand for our work has grown much greater. There are a number of law firms that are not taking on the level of pro bono work, the level of pro democracy work that they did in the first Trump administration, or that they have historically, as a result of the president\u2019s strategy to try to intimidate institutions.\u201d And Democracy Forward is filling in the void created by Biglaw\u2019s withdrawal, Perryman continued, \u201cWe have a number of clients and people and communities, diverse groups, coming to us needing that representation that they would have otherwise got from the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democracy Forward, which was created in the wake of the first Trump administration, is staffed by many former Biglaw and government attorneys. And they\u2019ve expanded to 150 staff members, putting them in an excellent position to continue the legal fight against Trump. \u201cWe have always prioritized having full-time legal staff so that we could be able to take on matters ourselves when, for instance, larger institutions like some of the elite law firms that are not taking on pro bono matters, pull back,\u201d said Perryman. \u201cThat\u2019s why the demand for our work has exponentially grown.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it only looks like Democracy Forward will get busier.<\/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 Filling In The Void Caused By Biglaw\u2019s Cowardice<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photographer: Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0war on Biglaw<\/a>, through\u00a0unconstitutional Executive Orders<\/a>\u00a0designed\u00a0to break major law firms<\/a>\u00a0unless they\u00a0bend a knee<\/a>\u00a0to Trump, has already had a tremendous impact on the industry. In the\u00a0face of financial harm,\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0nine major firms\u00a0sought<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s seal of approval, providing pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of\u00a0conservative clients or causes<\/a>\u00a0in order to avoid Trumpian retribution. But\u00a0the chilling effect<\/a>\u00a0is even greater than those capitulating firms, because pro bono and public interest representations\u00a0by Biglaw firms<\/a>\u00a0are down \u2014\u00a0significantly<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as firms don\u2019t want to risk Trump\u2019s ire.<\/p>\n

There have been<\/a> a few examples<\/a> of Biglaw firms<\/a> that capitulated to Trump stepping up<\/a> to provide the kinds of legal representation the nation is particularly desperate for in 2025, but it\u2019s far from enough<\/a> to cover the need that exists. It\u2019s clear that Biglaw\u00a0isn\u2019t going to be<\/a>\u00a0our savior, and small and boutique law firms<\/a> have helped fill in the gap. But the legal landscape keeps on getting worse, and it\u2019s really an all-hands-on-deck moment.<\/p>\n

Good thing there\u2019s Democracy Forward, a 501(c)(3) legal organization that has more than 100 actions against the Trump administration in 2025. As\u00a0Skye Perryman, CEO and president, told Law.com<\/a>, \u201cThe demand for our work has grown much greater. There are a number of law firms that are not taking on the level of pro bono work, the level of pro democracy work that they did in the first Trump administration, or that they have historically, as a result of the president\u2019s strategy to try to intimidate institutions.\u201d And Democracy Forward is filling in the void created by Biglaw\u2019s withdrawal, Perryman continued, \u201cWe have a number of clients and people and communities, diverse groups, coming to us needing that representation that they would have otherwise got from the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democracy Forward, which was created in the wake of the first Trump administration, is staffed by many former Biglaw and government attorneys. And they\u2019ve expanded to 150 staff members, putting them in an excellent position to continue the legal fight against Trump. \u201cWe have always prioritized having full-time legal staff so that we could be able to take on matters ourselves when, for instance, larger institutions like some of the elite law firms that are not taking on pro bono matters, pull back,\u201d said Perryman. \u201cThat\u2019s why the demand for our work has exponentially grown.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it only looks like Democracy Forward will get busier.<\/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":"

Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0war on Biglaw, through\u00a0unconstitutional Executive Orders\u00a0designed\u00a0to break major law firms\u00a0unless they\u00a0bend a knee\u00a0to Trump, has already had a tremendous impact on the industry. In the\u00a0face of financial harm,\u00a0\u00a0nine major firms\u00a0sought\u00a0Trump\u2019s seal of approval, providing pro bono payola, that is, free legal services on behalf of\u00a0conservative clients or causes\u00a0in order to avoid Trumpian retribution. But\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134230,"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-134229","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\/10\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-pwqlXZ.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134229","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=134229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}